Sonic - New Realities
by Pontiac56
Summary: What starts out as a peaceful picnic with friends turns into complete chaos for Sonic when friends and enemies from a different reality show up on Sonic's world. Especially when his arch nemesis Dr Eggman decides to get involved and use the methods of his old reality counterpart. Join Sonic and his otherworldly friends as they band together to stop Eggman before it's too late!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"You blasted hedgehog! Hold still so I can blast you to pieces!"

Sonic's usual smirk was gone as he duck and wove through the blaster fire Eggman's latest mech was laying out. This time there was nothing worth finding joy in. The spiky blue hedgehog could feel his blood pumping. His gloved fists were clenched and his red shoes moved swiftly beneath him, carrying his rage and determination.

Eggman had reached a new level of crazy. After his plan to robotocize Mobius had failed, due to Sally sacrificing herself and becoming the mad Doctor's Robian slave, Eggman had been building a device that would end the war forever in his favour. A machine so powerful it could alter reality itself, allowing Eggman to warp it to his will and create a reality solely under his control.

This madman had terrorized Mobius for decades now. He had killed friends, enslaved others and even destroyed Knothole in his insane quest to wipe the Mobians out and rule over the world uncontested. This madness had to end, and this time, Sonic was determined to make sure he was stopped for good.

As he sliced through another of Eggman's robotic defences, the explosion behind him revealed Tails and Amy at his flank, ready to fight until the end. The twin tailed fox may have only been 13 years old, but he held himself with an inner strength twice his age, and determination to rival Sonic's own. Amy's anger and ferocity could be felt flowing through her tiny pink body, into the giant hammer she wielded with a skill beyond any warrior Sonic had ever seen. The hero of Mobius had never been more proud of his freedom fighters.

The trio had managed to smash their way on board the mad Doctor's floating space station, the Death Egg. Eggman currently had the station high in orbit above Mobius, its metallic sheen reflecting down on the planet like a small moon.

It had taken a while, blasting their way through fleets of disposable badniks and other robo servants, fighting their way through the claustrophobic chambers, but the freedom fighting team had finally reached the centre of the deadly station.

Eggman growled with his teeth grit and his fist clenched so strongly it looked as though he was trying to break his own fingers. His giant spider robot protected the cone shaped reality warping machine held at the roof of the vast chamber, protected by dozens of turrets imbedded in the walls. The mad engineer turned to the two machines hovering beside him in the spider's cockpit, his glare burning with the fire of a desperate man so close to his goal.

"Don't just float there you metal morons, destroy that hedgehog and his freedom flunkies now!"

Beside him, an emotionless Metal Sonic, a robotic duplicate of the legendary hedgehog and Mecha Sally, the squirrel Princess of the Acorn line and the former leader of the freedom fighter's before her heroic sacrifice, activated their weapon systems and flew at the freedom fighters, their steel claws ready to slice through flesh and bone.

Sonic saw them incoming and glared at Eggman. Sending his robotocized friend at them again. This monster of a man needed to be stopped now!

"Tails! Amy! Keep these two busy while I take out the Egghead and stop the reality warper!" he cried, his spin dash slicing through the last of Eggman's smaller robots and evading another blaster strike from the Spiderlike metal abomination Eggman sat atop.

He didn't hear their response, but he saw from his peripheral vision as a ball of orange fur spin dashed into Metal Sonic, while Amy's giant mallet slammed against Mecha Sally's energy blades. Fierce pride flared through him seeing his comrades fighting to save their friends and their world. He wouldn't let them down.

Eggman screamed something almost incoherent at him, as Sonic sped at the metal spider, nothing but a ball of blue. Eggman's machine was titled back, but the doctor had made sure to pull out all the stops for this battle. The metal barely dented under Sonic's strike and he was immediately counterattacked by one of the spider's metal legs slamming him across the room.

"I won't let you win this time rodent! Not when I'm so close to total victory! My new reality will be perfect! No Freedom Fighters to throw off my plans! No Mobotropolis defying my rule! AND NO SONIC THE HEDGEHOG TO GET IN MY WAY!" Eggman screamed, his fingers flying across his cockpit controls, hitting buttons and pulling levers with a speed and fury that even Sonic was impressed by.

Missile ports opened along the mechanical Spider's upper body while the laser canons seemed to double in size. A hailstorm of explosive carnage launched towards Sonic, from the walls and the spider mech, but the Mobian was far from finished.

Living up to his nickname, Sonic was nothing but a blue blur, zooming up the wall at a speed that defied gravity. He zig zagged and weaved, dodging missiles and laserfire like they were nothing but an annoyance to him.

Alarms started to flare as the reality warper reached critical power. Explosions went off all over the Death Egg, as all available power was siphoned to the machine. This was literally do or die for Eggman. If he failed he would have no power left to save himself and the Death Egg would plummet from orbit and his dreams of a world under his control along with it. He would not let his efforts be stopped yet again!

He launched his spiderbot into the air, a metal grappling hook launching from its abdomen section and connecting to the ceiling. He pulled the machine upwards, revealing even more weaponry on the machine's underside as it rotated in mid-air, firing blindly in all directions.

As the grey metal walls were scorched black, a stray laser blast scored a hit on Tails namesakes, setting his fur afire and causing him to drop to the floor in a screaming heap of agony. Sonic cried out for his brother in all but blood, but he couldn't stop now. If he stopped all of Mobius would be lost. He could only watch in terror as Metal Sonic advanced towards the downed fox, claws outstretched and glowing red eyes focused and ready to end the furry fighter.

Suddenly, Amy leapt into action, somersaulting backwards from Mecha Sally's swipe and catapulting herself in front of Metal Sonic, shielding Tails with her hammer. Sonic had never been so glad to have the pink hedgehog here. But he knew she wouldn't last long against Metal Sonic's speed and ferocity and Mecha Sally's martial arts and energy blades. He had to end this now!

He ceased all attention of fighting back against Eggman's spiderbot and sped as fast as he could towards the reality warper, his feet moving so fast that the walls were left with a burning trail in his wake.

Suddenly a button lit up inside Eggman's cockpit and a deranged smile covered his moustached face.

"It's too late you pathetic pincushion! The machine is ready to fire! Say goodbye Sonic, for you won't exist in my new world!"

The Doctor pushed the button and his psychotic, unhinged laughter echoed around the room as the reality warper began to activate. Its cone like structure began to glow with a white light and all around it, energy started to spark as the final power streams from the Death Egg crackled away.

"NOOOO!" Sonic cried, leaping forwards. There was only one thing he could try to stop this madman. Hurtling at the machine like a blue missile, he smashed into the reality warper hoping to obliterate it.

But his efforts appeared in vain as he felt himself falling away from the intact machine. All his strength and speed had done nothing but crack the metal slightly. Some sparks leapt from it, but the power continued to thrum and the glow began to blind the room.

Suddenly, as his body began to free-fall towards the metal ground below, he heard the frantic and outraged cries of his nemesis.

"No! What have you done you blue fool! You've altered the parameters of my reality! I can't override the machine! I have no idea what is going to happen now! Curse you Sonic the Hedge…"

His cries were cut short as a wave of white burst from the machine, covering everything and swallowing the Doctor whole. Below, Amy, injured and bleeding badly, looked up fearfully as the white spread outwards rapidly. Even the two machines halted their attacks as the wave of white engulfed everything, seeming to wash everything it touched into nothingness.

As the white engulfed Sonic too, one last thought crossed through his mind.

"I failed…"

* * *

"The damage is intense, but luckily his power core wasn't destroyed. He's currently trying to repair himself, but with this amount of damage, his core can't completely reactivate his internal components. Luckily I have something that can help."

Nicole's hard light projection stood over the operating table worriedly as Sir Charles, the hedgehog genius, shuffled to a storage device holding something under lock and key. Upon the table lay a heavily damaged Agent Jack, known to his friends as Shard, the original Metal Sonic. The former Eggman minion turned Secret Freedom Fighter had just been in a battle with Eggman's latest version of Metal Sonic after it had attacked Mobotropolis. After a fierce battle, the Metal Sonic self-destructed, heavily damaging Shard and knocking his systems offline after he managed to put out a distress call to Nicole.

Intense concern flowed through the AI Lynx as she looked over the brave machine. While it was nothing but code being projected from the digital realm into the physical realm, the Lynx couldn't help gripping onto her purple silken robe and biting her lip as she took in his condition.

His right leg had been blown clean off and his left arm, housing his primary canon, had been severed in half. Multiple fractures in his chassis revealed his damaged inner workings and his black and gold coating was marred by scraps and explosive residue. His visor, cracked and blackened, was completely blank, with no sign of the friendly glowing green eye optics she always felt fascinated by.

Before going offline, the last thing Shard had tried to do was tell her something personal, and it was weighing heavily on her mind. Shard had been visiting her network a lot while being stationed here in Mobotropolis after his last mission. She had developed a strong friendship with the machine, stronger than most of her other friends. His history as a former killing machine bent on destruction, and the guilt he felt over it was something she could understand well, after her reprogramming into Iron Nicole and her turning against the citizens of Mobotropolis. Their non-organic nature helped bond them further, connecting her with someone that could understand her better than anyone.

She suspected however that Shard felt more than friendship for her. His ability to grow and learn had elevated him far beyond his original programming, until he had become the funny, ego driven brave fool that lay before her. But the idea anyone could ever feel something for her, an AI, beyond friendship, sent a strange and tingling feeling flowing through her code.

Seeing her friend so damaged was incredibly frightening. Chuck could comprehend the damage, but he could only see it through the eyes of an organic looking at a broken machine, even if it was a machine he cared about. She could understand the pain Shard must be in though. The fragmented and corrupted code desperately trying to buzz through his systems, but unable to due to the broken wiring and fractured metallic casing was to a machine, like an organic bleeding out as their broken body was unable to move and save itself.

Since the robot hedgehog's teammates had rushed him into Chuck's workshop, Nicole hadn't left his side. She could still see the rest of Mobotropolis through the city's security cameras and feel the nanites that made up the city, after all she was the guardian of Mobotropolis for a reason, but those were all secondary systems. Her core self, projected through the holographic projectors of the workshop, kept her here, with her friend, and she had no intention of leaving until he was safe.

"Ah here we go. This should do the trick."

Nicole looked up as Chuck returned to the table, but what he clutched in his hand surprised her.

A chaos emerald.

The chaos emeralds, rare and powerful gems, seven in total, that were scattered throughout Mobius. Many a time Eggman had tried to use their power to advance his plans, but Sonic and the Freedom Fighters had always stopped him. The gems were kept under incredible guard whenever they were rediscovered. Nicole suspected it was only Chuck's role as a member of the Council of Acorn that allowed him to even see the gem. She had barely been briefed that it was present in the city, and with her knowledge and control over Mobotropolis, that was saying something.

Chuck placed the powerful gem atop of the power core built into Shard's chest. The green crystal started to glow as the intense chaos energy radiated from the special gem. Power flooded through the robot below and with a gasp Shard's eyes re ignited. He immediately flung himself forward, but his damaged state kept him from moving too far. He rapidly looked over himself in a state of confusion before looking up at the concerned Nicole and Chuck hovering over him. He stared for a moment before a slow smirk crossed his metallic muzzle.

"If you think I look bad, you should see the other guy."

Chuck gave a groan and turned away grumbling, while Nicole gave a relieved giggle before leaning in and wrapping her holographic arms around the damaged robot.

"Next time you decide to fight a Metal Sonic alone, try not to let yourself get blown up."

"I'll do my best." the robot chuckled, wrapping his non damaged hand around Nicole in return, feeling her care and concern wash over him like a warm blanket.

They held each other for a moment before Nicole pulled herself away. She left a hand on his shoulder however, turning her head as a slight blush cover her cheeks.

"I'm glad you're ok…" she said in a quiet voice breaking eye contact.

Shard observed her for a moment, before placing his hand atop hers with a kind smile.

"Thanks Nicole. I'm just glad you and the citizens are ok."

Nicole raised her head and the two smiled at each other before a cough drew their attention.

Chuck was watching them both with a raised eyebrow and a very Sonic-like smirk. Both the AI Lynx and the Metal Hedgehog released each other and looked away with a blush while the aged hedgehog let out a chuckle before approaching the robot.

"Well, I'm glad you're ok Shard. You gave us quite a scare out there. The damage you sustained was quite severe. So much so that your auto repair function was barely operational. Luckily, the chaos emerald here was able to charge up your power core, which super charged the repairs and got you up and running again."

Shard looked down at the emerald still sitting upon his chest. His power core was still drawing power from it, and the cracks on the crystal piece had already sealed themselves. He could feel his repair systems working overtime to restore his missing limbs and fix his damaged components. It would still be some time until he was completely fixed, but he could already fill his systems growing stronger by the minute.

"Thanks Gramps. I'll admit, I thought for a moment that I'd be down for the count out there. But I guess I can always rely on your tech smarts and Nicole's fast reaction time to pick up my slack."

The old hedgehog just gave a sigh and a smile as he shook his head.

"Well I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye on you in the future then. In the meantime, you're going to need to stay here for a few hours while your body recharges and repairs. Keep a hold of the chaos emerald until your repair functions are completely restored or the process will take even longer."

"Will do Gramps. Frankly, I'm too tired to go anywhere right now anyway. All my spare power is diverting into my repair functions, so I doubt I could get up even if I tried." Shard laughed as he lay himself back down onto the table and let his broken body begin to heal.

Nicole smiled and forged a connector cable from her nanites out of the monitor nearby.

"Perhaps while your physical body repairs itself, we can finish our game of virtual chess."

"Absolutely Nicole. Perhaps today will be the day I finally defeat you." Shard smiled and raised his hand to join himself to the connector cable and download his consciousness into Nicole's virtual world. However before he could do so, an alarm blared all through the room, and the rest of the city.

Nicole made a sweeping gesture with her hand and monitors all around the room lit up with camera footage from the city. The trio watched in fear as an all-encompassing wave of white was rapidly engulfing the city. Everyone it touched seemed to disappear within, and its speed was beyond anything even Sonic could achieve.

Team Freedom, and even the Secret Freedom Fighters all ran about, giving directions, trying to do something to help, but despite their confidence and strength, their efforts to attack or evade the white wave were having no effect. The wall of white had already washed away half the city within moments and they could see it was so far stretching that nothing lay beyond it.

Nicole and Shard gasped in horror as Silver the hedgehog and Elias Acorn were both swept away into the white wave of nothing. Worse still, even Nicole's nanites were being erased, and she could feel her digital reach growing smaller and smaller.

Sensing this, Shard immediately turned to her, any of the earlier joviality gone from his metal face.

"Quickly Nicole, download yourself back into your handheld before your primary matrix is erased by whatever that force is."

Obeying him, Nicole pulled all her mental functions out of the city, condensing herself back into her smallest form and immediately transferring herself out of the system and into the small handheld pad that sat nearby. This act deactivated all access to the camera grid, but it made little difference. The screams of panic and loss echoed everywhere.

Just as the transfer had been completed, Chuck gave a gasp as the white force erased the nearby wall. Shard, despite his damaged condition, forced his systems to function and pushed himself up from his operating table, hobbling over to Nicole's pad with a wobbly hop and a small boost from his power jet. Grabbing the pad, the robot turned to his hedgehog friend, only to watch in terror as his elderly body wasn't quick enough to escape the white, and he was wrenched out of existence.

"Shard what do we do!" Nicole cried, completely helpless now within her portable cage.

The robot hedgehog looked down at her, before cradling the pad close to his body with his damaged canon.

"Only one thing we can do."

Clutching the chaos emerald in his hand and ensuring he wouldn't lose any grip on Nicole, Shard said two words, hoping to whatever gods there were that the AI he held would be safe as the white wave advanced towards them.

"Chaos Control!"

There was a flash.

Then there was nothing.

* * *

The sounds of fighting that echoed around Anti Acorn castle finally came to an end as Alicia Acorn, the Anti Sally and the current leader of the Suppression Squad, was thrown face first onto the hard stone floor.

The bruised and bleeding chipmunk attempted to push herself up, only to be crushed back into the ground by a steel clad boot. With her cheek mushed against the dusty cobblestone, she looked around the room to see that her squad was in similar straits.

Boomer the walrus tech wiz was pinned up against the wall by the hulking form of the gorilla Sergeant Simian. The Walrus' weaponized arms were crushed to pieces, cutting painfully into his flesh and rendering only his upper arms movable. One of his tusks had been broken off and the power pack on his back that had supplied energy to his arms had been ripped clean away. His cybernetic eye was cracked and sparking, alongside the flesh side of his face which was swollen and a dark purple with bruising. The smiling gorilla behind him barely had a scuff on him for all Boomer's efforts, which seemed to infuriate the defeated walrus even more

Patch the coyote was held against the ground with his arms pinned painfully to his back by Lightning Lynx. Patch's green uniform had been torn and his sword lay in a broken heap somewhere off to his side. He tried to struggle, but the ex-ninja lynx holding him down just applied more force with a sneer.

Above them all, Predator the hawk looked down from his roost on a broken pillar, ready to swoop down and slice open any of the squad that managed to get loose. He needn't worry though, as the Destructix had taken the Suppression Squad down with barely any effort. For all the Anti-group's swagger, they were just a bunch of punks with a big ego and little actual skill, unlike the trained and skilled mercenary group from the Prime Mobius.

Seeing her group so humiliated and easily taken apart filled Alicia with powerful disgust, for both her situation and her pathetic team mates. Her observations were cut off however, as the occupant of the steel toed boot grinding down on her back leaned down into her field of vision. Alicia sorely wished she had some capacity to rise up and wipe the smug smirk off of Fiona fox's face. The red vixen clad in leather had been a thorn in her side from the moment they had met. Given the title of Queen, despite Alicia having been a Princess and the next to rightfully claim the Anti Acorn throne, Fiona had ordered her about as though the chipmunk was just some common thug. To have her authority and power stripped from her by some other world fox was disgusting.

"Awe, don't look so mad your majesty. You did bring this on yourself by turning on our glorious king after all." Fiona's smirk was wide and her eyes were filled with gleeful malice. However they soon filled with pride as voice that filled Alicia with fear, spoke up.

"Well said my Queen. A King doesn't stand for disloyalty, especially when he offers those that follow him power they couldn't dream of achieving alone."

Fiona eased up on her hold slightly, allowing Alicia to turn and see the speaker above, standing proudly before her rightful throne. Miles the fox, badly beaten and barely conscious, was held up at the throat by a gloved hand. Green and black boots stood firmly on the worn red carpet that connected to her throne. A pair of red sunglasses reflected the light of the window, almost seeming to make the wearer's eye glow menacingly. A leather jacket with flame accents was proudly worn to show off just how bad the figure truly was, at least in his eyes. His green quills were sharp and ready to sin dash any opposition into pieces. But it was his shark like teeth, gnashed together in a malevolent smirk, that truly screamed just how bad things were about to get for the Suppression Squad.

Scourge the Hedgehog, the Anti-Sonic, former King of Moebius and escaped convict of the formerly inescapable No Zone prison.

The hedgehog exuded an aura of gloating victory, and dark anger just waiting to lash out at those that had caused the emotion.

Alicia knew precisely what had triggered this in him, and why he was here now. After Scourge, with Fiona by his side, had returned from his fun in the Prime Mobius, he had decided to apply himself, and in a matter of weeks had taken complete control of the then Anti-Mobius. He proclaimed himself King and renamed the planet under its new name, before beginning a campaign to take the Prime Mobius like he had done with his home world.

However, Alicia, angry over her royal authority being stripped from her and resentful, alongside the rest of the Suppression Squad, for being abused and mistreated by the arrogant King, had forged a temporary alliance with their enemies, the Freedom Fighters, to betray and take down Scourge.

There had been a hiccup in the plan when Scourge, now using a Super transformation from his Anarchy Beryl stash hidden in his throne, had fought back. Ultimately however, he was tricked and defeated by the Prime Sonic and taken to the No Zone prison where he should have stayed the rest of his life.

Evidently, with the Destructix help, this was not to be the case, and now Alicia and her Squad were seeing why betraying Scourge had been a mistake.

Seeing he had Alicia's attention, Scourge tossed Miles aside, letting him rag doll across the room until he came to an unconscious heap by the wall, with Predator swooping down from his perch to keep an eye on him to prevent any attempted escapes should the cowardly fox awaken.

The arrogant green menace folded his arms behind his back and slowly descended the stone steps in front of the throne as he approached the beaten chipmunk, his malevolent smile wide and his teeth as jagged and sharp as ever.

"So Ally, still think turnin' on me was a good idea?"

When she didn't respond, Fiona dug her heel into Alicia's spine, her cry of pain widening her smile.

"Scourge asked you a question _princess._ "

Alicia groaned, but turned to Scourge once more, the arrogant hedgehog just waiting to keep gloating over his victory.

"N… no." she growled out weakly.

"Then maybe you should'a thought about it before backstabbin' me!"

Fiona moved away, just as the laughing Scourge kicked the Chipmunk square in the ribs, definitely breaking at least one with his powerful legs, and sending the Anti-Sally flying into a pillar.

She gave a scream then collapsed in a painful heap on the ground, unable to hold herself up as Scourge advanced on her, Fiona crossing her arms with a smirk and watching alongside the Destructix.

Her man was back.

The Hedgehog looked down on the defeated Princess before pinning her to the pillar with his boot, grinding her chest and causing her to scream in agony.

"I spent over a year in that hell hole of a prison because of you traitors and that cheating blue prick. I'll get to him soon, but first, I'm gonna teach you losers why no one messes with me."

He removed his foot, only to grab her by the front of her torn and tattered uniform and lift her up with one arm, winding back his other arm back to form a fist, ready to beat into this royal pain what happens to traitors.

"P…please… we-e… we will s-serve you… we will… do as you say… just…"

Alicia's desperate pleading was cut off, as instead of a punch, Scourge slapped her across the face.

"Serve me! Why would I want any of you traitorous dicks to serve me! Look around you woman!" he waved his arm around at his team before turning back to the fool, "My Destructix are ten times the team the Suppression Squad is. You losers are nothing to them. Unlike you spineless cowards, these guys aren't here just to ride my coat tails to power and then try to turn on me. They work for me because they know I will give them what they want, and all I ask for in return is loyalty and respect. You Anti 's just served out of fear and took the first opportunity to back stab me."

He paused for a moment, before releasing his hold on the chipmunk and letting her slump back to the floor, wrapping her arms around her ribs in a futile effort to reduce the pain.

"Still, you idiots did show me somethin' important."

Scourge folded his arms once more and strode to the center of the room, in everyone's field of vision. He basked in the attention for a moment, before turning his head back to Alicia.

"You showed me the real flaw of our world. Mobius Prime may be filled with a bunch of goody goody tree huggers, but each of those Freedom dorks has more strength in em' then anyone on this crappy world, save myself of course." Indicating to himself with a flourish before turning his body to the downed princess completely, "Fiona and the Destructix here are further proof. As much as I detest ever agreeing with anything any version of my bastard of a father has to say, Sonic's Jules was right. Their world is full of brave heroes while this world is the reverse, filled with power hungry cowards. My mutation has raised me above this, but all of you and this entire world aren't worth rulin' over."

He raised his hand up, staring at his open palm, as though envisioning all of Moebius sitting snug within his grasp.

"So this time… this time I ain't gonna beat down those stupid warlords and tyrants and have everyone bow to me. No this time, I'm gonna burn this whole world to ashes. Take everythin' of value, recruit anyone smart enough to see the truth and then," he closed his hand into a fist, a wild and sadistic grin covering his face as all the Anti Mobians in the room listened in terror, "We're gonna storm Mobius Prime, kill that spiky blue punk and take the world for ourselves. Then we'll move onto the next and the next, until the multiverse bows down before the might of Scourge!"

The Destructix gave a cheer, all hooting and laughing, praising Scourge who basked in it all, his shark like smile as wide as ever. Fiona looked at him, filled with pride and admiration. She knew busting Scourge out of the No Zone was the right move. Her team may have doubted for a while, but she always knew that her boyfriend would lead them all to power and glory like nothing they had seen.

Seeing him like this, instead of the… mess he had been in prison, really showed her how much she cared about Scourge. Still though, for how much he occupied her thoughts, she needed to keep herself from going over the edge. That type of thought was how you ended up betrayed and abandoned.

As Scourge started to strut about, showing off to the beaten Suppression Squad, a sudden cry drew everyone's attention.

"What the hell!" he shouted as a panicking Miles and Predator were caught by some strange white energy that seemed to engulf the whole wall. They screamed out in terror, before they were suddenly just gone, vanished into the wall of white as it began rapidly advancing, taking the throne along with it.

Boomer panicked and tried to throw himself back, tripping the distracted Sergeant Simian in the process. This proved his undoing, as the gorilla's hold on the walrus was like steel, and he pulled the cyborg Moebian down with him. The two tried to scramble to their feet, but were too slow as the wave washed over them, and they too, were gone.

"Hell no, I ain't letting us go out like this!" Scourge cried, turning and sprinting to Fiona, who had begun backing up, terrified and unsure what to do.

Lightning Lynx leapt to his feet to follow, but Patch, seeing he was in no condition to run decided on a kamikaze, grabbing the ninja's leg and causing him to collapse as the wave erased them both.

Scourge ignored this though, his eyes squared solely on his girlfriend. He grabbed Fiona and held her bridal style in his arms, not stopping to look back. With a speedy jump, he cleared the massive broken window at the side of the room and carried the two outside.

Behind them, Alicia acorn pulled herself to her feet, using the pillar for support. Her entire team and the Destructix were both gone. Her castle was disappearing into nothing, and right now she knew she was very likely bleeding internally and unable to escape whatever this white wave was.

As it surged forth, erasing the room, and the entire castle, Alicia could only curse out that damn hedgehog. She looked out the window, watching him and his vixen girlfriend escape.

"Damn you Scourge. Damn you to hell…"

Scourge was a blur of green, speeding through the great forest as fast as his legs could carry him. Fiona, held securely in his arms, looked back as the castle completely disappeared, the wall of white stretching as far as she could see, and it seemed to be getting faster.

For every step Scourge seemed to take, the white wave seemed to cover two.

"Scourge it's gaining on us! What are we gonna do?!" she yelled, her voice barely carrying over the air as the two raced. Still, Scourge heard her loud and clear.

"Don't worry babe, I got an idea!"

He kept racing, as determined as Fiona had ever seen him, but the white energy just kept engulfing everything and growing closer and closer.

Suddenly the two left the winding path of the forest to see a large tower with a symbol of a smiling moustached face at its top.

"Kintobor's tower?" Fiona questioned as Scourge kept sprinting forwards. Around them, other scared Moebians were heading in the same direction, likely hoping their long time protector could do something to help them.

"You got it babe. I got no clue what the hell is goin' on right now, but getting' the heck off Moebius seems like the safest plan. He should still have those globe posts set up and connected to Mobius Prime. I'll get us through and we can lay low for a while until we can figure out what just happened."

The crowd of Moebians heading for the tower started to get denser, but Scourge's speed simply knocked them from his path like falling dominos.

Up above they could see the kindly Doctor Kintobor and the former Supprssion Squad turned Moebian Freedom Fighter Buns Rabot in their hover car and life support mech respectively, trying to direct the panicking citizens. There was no way they couldn't see the blur of green that was Scourge racing for the tower doors, but with the scared Moebian's racing about, they had no means to try and stop him.

Bursting through the doors, Scourge held tight to Fiona as he raced down hallway after hallway, trying to find the globe posts. The posts were the key to his first invasion of Mobius Prime, acting as a gateway between the two worlds. The two could only hope Kintobor hadn't dismantled them for some reason.

The screams from outside seemed to suddenly go silent, and after passing a security monitor, the two could see the wave had engulfed the front of the tower, taking all the citizens with it.

"Dammit, we're runnin' outta time! Where are the stupid posts!" Scourge cried in frustration, but his grip on Fiona was like steel and the fox could feel his heart beat rapidly beginning to quicken with fear.

They raced down another corridor in desperation, when suddenly Fiona spotted a familiar yellow gleam.

"Look Scourge there!" she pointed into a side room filled with unfinished robotic designs the Doctor had likely been in the process of building to try and counter the threat of the Suppression Squad. Toward the back of the room, the globe posts, two large posts with a red ball on each with the pattern of a star, were assembled and active, a yellow portal active and ready transport someone to Mobius Prime.

"Someone must have stole our idea and started up the posts. Whatever, saves us the work." Scourge started making his way to the posts, when suddenly the wall of the room was enveloped in white.

"Shit! Now or never babe, hold on!"

Fiona braced herself against her hedgehog lover as he dashed forwards towards the posts, before the wall could snatch away their escape.

With a grunt and a leap, Scourge hurled the two of them forwards, through the yellow portal, disappearing with a flash. Behind them, seconds before the white could erase the rest of Moebius, another figure dashed through in their wake.

The portal gave a final flash, and then, the white washed over.

Then there was nothing.

* * *

Sonic woke up with a gasp.

He looked around the room for a second, feeling as though everything was wrong, before he took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"What a weird dream." He muttered to himself as he took in his surroundings.

He'd been taking a nap on top of Tail's workshop, a fairly common occurrence. Amy and Cream had called to organize a group picnic, and had even managed to coerce Knuckles to leave the Master Emerald for a few hours to enjoy the fun. Tails had decided to quickly get in some last minute work on some new invention Sonic hadn't been able to understand a word of, so the blue hedgehog had decided to rest up on the roof until it was time to leave.

Despite realizing where he was and that he'd just been dreaming, Sonic still had an odd feeling in his gut. Fighting Eggman on a new Death Egg… fighting some robot Chipmunk that had… had meant something to him for some reason… that weird white energy.

It had felt so… real.

No, no, it was just a dream, he was sure of it.

No one had affected his reality. He could clearly remember how everything had gone down. He and Tail's had fought Eggman plenty of times. They'd met and team up with Knuckles after a little misunderstanding that Eggman had engineered. He'd helped Shadow fight off Black Doom and stop the Ark from crashing into Earth. He'd turned into a Werehog and helped Chip the Light Gaia stop his evil brother the Dark Gaia.

Things were exactly as they were supposed to be.

"Oh Sonniku! Where are you!"

Sonic blinked and gave a grown as he saw Cream the rabbit with her faithful Chao companion Cheese standing next to Amy Rose, the pretty young hedgehog girl, clad in her red dress and headband, who had decided (without his opinion or consent) that she was Sonic's girlfriend and that they would be together forever.

As the pink hedgehog knocked rapidly on the door with excitement, Sonic just lay back down hoping she couldn't see him.

Maybe it would be nice if this was some other reality after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Uggh... man, those stupid posts weren't that bad to travel through last time."

Scourge groaned as he lifted himself up from the ground, falling into a sitting position as he took in his surroundings. He was in a peaceful looking clearing filled with beautiful wild flowers and a cool crisp breeze. Behind him was the beginning of a forest, the trees looking bright and lush with a few berry bushes in scattered clumps around the tree bases. Some small woodland critters watched him curiously for a moment before scurrying off to complete whatever goals they had set for themselves. It was lovely and peaceful.

So where in the hell was Freedom HQ?

A grumble beside him caught his attention. Fiona Fox's prone form started to shift as she regained consciousness. Scourge couldn't help taking in the sight of her. Her leather outfit made the red of her fur look luxuriously bright and striking. Her top was short and showed off her furry mid riff. The gloves on her hands were long, leading to her elbows and left her fuzzy little fingers uncovered. Her tight black pants left little to the imagination, but those stupid enough to try and cop a feel on his girl would be deterred by the twin spiked belts she had looped around her hips. Atop her soft brown hair, the only part of her outfit that didn't scream _'I'm a badass'_ was the lovely little yellow bow she had tied in. As much as she likely wouldn't appreciate the comment, Scourge certainly thought the little yellow piece of fabric looked incredibly cute on her, especially as her fluffy tail started to wave back and forth. A small, genuine smile crossed the Hedgehog's face. Whatever else Fiona might be, she was definitely a hotty. And she was all his.

The fox blinked her eyes and shifted her head, turning to see Scourge sitting beside her.

"Scourge… what happened? Last time we went through those posts we didn't black out."

Scourge gave an unsure shrug as he helped the fox up, letting her lean against him as they took in the sight of the clearing.

"I dunno babe. Maybe whoever turned it on must'a screwed with it or somethin'. Might explain why we're in the middle of nowhere instead of the Freedom Freaks HQ."

The two sat close for a few minutes taking in the natural beauty of the clearing, before finally, they rose to their feet.

"Well, nice as this place is, we ain't gonna get any answers sitting around doin' nothin'. Let's see if we can find a village or somethin' and figure out where the heck on Mobius we are."

Fiona nodded in agreement, "Hopefully someone can give us a clue what that weird whiteness was. Plus, we're gonna need a new crew if we plan on taking Mobius. Without the Destructix or Moebius' resources, we aren't going to get very far in our conquest. Not with the Freedom Fighters at the top of their game fighting Eggman."

At her words Scourge just smirked, wrapping an arm around Fiona's waste and pulling her close. She made no move to resist, wrapping herself around her Hedgehog beau.

"Don't worry babe. We may not be in prime position to take over Mobius right now, but we will be soon enough. After all, that blue bastard has made just as many enemies as he has friends. I'm sure there's plenty of folks who'll be more than happy to help us take him down. Besides," he leaned in close, his smirk as alluring as ever and his eyes full of passion and determination. Fiona could feel herself grow lighter just staring into those blue orbs, "You and me can take just about anyone. We fought off the Suppression Sissies and the Freedom Flunkies alone until that blue punk got involved, and we busted out of a prison no one has ever been able to escape from. You and me Fiona, together we can do anythin'. We see Sonic and his pals and they won't know what hit em'."

Feeling her own smirk upon her muzzle, the fox closed the distance between her and Scourge, their lips meeting in a passionate kiss. Her man always knew just what to say.

Scourge gave a moan of appreciation feeling the fox's soft lips pressed upon his own. His blood pumped hard and his adrenaline spiked. He'd kissed plenty of hot babes in his life, but none of them could compare to the feeling of kissing his Fiona. Pulling himself closer, Scourge looped both his hands around her waist, bringing her body to press completely against his own. In turn, Fiona wrapped an arm around his neck, while another stroked one of his head quills lovingly. Their embrace was filled with passion and lust. Nothing could beat the feeling they had when they were with each other.

They held each other for a while more, their mouths intertwined and their bodies as close as they could be pressed together, before finally the need for air became too great and they were forced to break apart. Breathing heavily, their smirks were strong and their eyes filled with satisfaction.

Eventually, after he had regained his breath, Scourge stood tall, gesturing lightly to the forest behind them.

"Come on sweet thing, let's get a move on. We've a world to conquer and a blue pest to eradicate."

Nodding with a smile, Fiona joined her boyfriend as they turned from the clearing and started making their way through the tree line, hoping to find a path or road.

Unbeknownst to either of them however, one of the berry bushes gave a rustle and a figure rose up shaking off unconsciousness. They shook their head to wash away the discomfort before trailing their eyes after the pair as the couple left.

A wicked smile cross the figure's face before they silently scuttled after the two.

* * *

Trees blew gently through the forest alongside a stream flowing along at a leisurely pace. This stream sat quietly in a small grotto shielded by the lush foliage of the forest around it. Some small field mice scurried out from the bushy hiding places for a drink, while beautiful rainbow fish followed the current on their grand journey. It was peaceful, with only the gentle sound of distant birds and the soft splashes of the water bubbling around pebbles large and small.

This was all interrupted however as a great flash of light flooded the area and a damaged metal figure fell straight into the water. A large spark cracked through the air and exploded throwing Shard into a tumble. His face grated through the dirt, scattering the startled mice and denting his face even further. A few minutes passed after the dramatic entrance before the grotto's quiet peacefulness reasserted itself, and calm silence was all that could be heard.

The damaged metal mobian gave a groan before rolling onto his back, ensuring his precious cargo, Nicole's pad, was undamaged and safe.

"Uggh… well… any landing you can walk away from I guess… uggh…" Shard just stared up at the sky as fluffy clouds blew passed. Warning messages flashed through his optics, telling him how the water short circuit had even further damaged his already wrecked systems, but he ignored them, letting his repair systems slowly kick back in. It was going to be a while before he had could replace his leg and he still had severe damage to his chassis, but as long as he kept himself safe for a little while, his internal systems should be able to patch up a little and get him into a more stable position. He at least had the comfort of knowing his canon had been prioritized by the self-repair subroutines and was now partially operational again, so he could keep Nicole safe if any further threats appeared.

Realizing he hadn't heard anything from the AI Lynx since they landed, Shard turned to her pad.

"Nicole, are you alright?"

She didn't immediately respond which caused worry to flare through the robot hedgehog. Slowly however, the digital pixels were projected from the pad creating her avatar on the physical plain. The digital Mobian had turned herself partially away from Shard, her head low and her arms held tightly to her chest.

"I... am unharmed Shard... You're quick thinking saved us... Thank you."

Shard was silent for a moment, before he slowly moved forward and placed a hand on the AI's hard light shoulder.

"I can tell what you're thinking Nicole. For someone without sleeves, you sure wear your heart there a great deal." the light joke brought a flicker of a smile to Nicole's muzzle before her melancholy forced it away, "There was nothing either of us could have done. Our team and team Freedom couldn't do anything to stop whatever that force was, and it even consumed your nanobots. Running was our only option."

Pain and grief overwhelmed the Lynx and she swung around to Shard, knocking his hand from her shoulder. "But I'm the guardian of Mobotropolis! It's my job to protect the city and the citizens from attack! I should have been able to do something, anything to help them!"

She attempted to say more, before virtual tears slid down her cheeks and she gave up the fight to hold back her sadness. She collapsed against Shard, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could, hiding her sobbing face against his chest. Shard didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her in turn. Nicole dedicated herself to protecting the citizens of Mobotropolis, even when they banished her from the city in fear. It was her purpose, her self-driven goal in life. And in one swoop, the city and all of its people were gone, wiped out of existence like the light from a dying candle. To know that this had happened and she couldn't do anything to prevent it hurt more than anything.

Shard held her tight, his green eyes and power core seeming to dim in her sorrow. The holographic tears flowing down his chest hurt more than all the damage Metal Sonic had managed to inflict on him. Slowly though, his eyes hardened with determination and he pulled Nicole back just enough that she could see his optics.

"Nicole I know this is a heavy blow, but we need to be strong. We have no idea what just happened. For all we know, the citizens were just teleported somewhere, or they are stuck in some different zone. Plus, we know that Sonic and his team weren't in the city. They're on their mission to stop Eggman's latest attack. We still have allies out there that can help us."

His words seemed to be having an effect on the AI as her tears slowly came to a halt and her grip on him began to relax.

"You haven't failed Nicole. This is just a lost battle. But together we will find some help and we will win the war. I don't know what happened, but I won't rest until we can find out. I know that whatever happens next, I will have you here with me, and with someone as brave and strong as you, I know we will be ok."

She tried to fight it, but the coding within her forced a blush to her cheeks at Shard's kind words. He always seemed to be able to make her smile.

"Very well Shard. I will stay strong, and together we will find the answers we seek."

Shard gave a bright smile as his metal fingers gently wiped the tears from her face, letting them fade back into nothing but coding.

While she was in reality just a collection of photonic particles being projected from the pad that housed her coding matrix, holding the hard light projection in his arms like this always felt so nice to Shard. While his capacity to feel objects in a physical sense was far more limited than an organic being, it mattered little to him. Nicole's presence overcame any limitations in his design. He could hold her like this for hours and still feel more content by the second. For all of the dark memories that haunted the metal hedgehog, every memory with Nicole always brought joy to his power core.

Nicole stared up at the warm smile on Shard's muzzle, the blush being displayed across her digital cheeks as strong as ever. In this moment, all the pain and regret that still filled her seemed to gently wash away. She wished the moment could last forever.

It wasn't meant to be however as a new display crossed over Shard's optic view screen. It showed that his internal scanning mechanisms had been patched up by his self-repair subroutines, and were now detecting several life signs nearby.

"Heh, sorry Nicole. As much as I love bringing that lovely little blush to your cheeks," said blush grew brighter after the smirking robot's acknowledgment of it, "We need to get a move on. I've detected several Mobian life signs nearby, and with any luck, they can point us in the direction of Sonic and his team. Then we can get to work finding out what the heck happened and how we kick the butt of whoever was responsible for it."

Feeling a tad disappointed (and very embarrassed to realize she felt disappointed) Nicole pulled away from the Robian and gave a nod. "Yes you are right. We have no time to waste. We need answers, and you still need repairs. Hopefully this group can point us in the right direction, or at least tell us where we are."

With a last, confident smile shared between them, Nicole downloaded herself back into her pad to conserve power while Shard booted up his flight systems. His power transfer systems were still damaged and the damage to his chassis still made movement difficult, but he slowly rose into the air in a wonky pattern.

Clutching the pad tightly to his chest, Shard took off, praying that whoever up ahead was friendly and willing to help.

* * *

Sonic let out a relaxing breath as he lay under the shade of a tree. The small park he was in always felt like a great place to chill out and let the worries of the day fade away. He watched in contentment at the scattered grouping of friends before him.

Sitting on a picnic blanket with a basket beside them was Amy and Cream. The pink hedgehog was preparing a sandwich for the young rabbit beside her, smiling as Cream gleefully told her about how her week had been and playfully rubbing the head of Cheese the Chao as he chirped along.

A little further away Tails the two tailed fox was unsuccessfully trying to show off his latest invention, a small box like device that would supposedly translate any language into English, to a bored looking Knuckles the echidna. The guardian of the master emerald had his spiked gauntlets crossed across his chest as he gave Tails an unimpressed look before telling Tails that as neither of them, or any of their friends, spoke a different language, what exactly was the point in showing this device off?

As Tails started to sputter in embarrassment, Sonic gave a quiet chuckle before closing his eyes and letting his mind wander.

The dream from earlier was still in the back of his mind, but he was ignoring, letting himself focus on events he _knew_ had definitely happened. Like the time Eggman had taken control of an ancient time creature and he had had to team up with a younger version of himself to save his friends and fix the damage to the timeline that Eggman and his own younger self had unleashed.

Then there was the time that Eggman had chained up the little planet and had Metal Sonic kidnap Amy. Sonic gave a smile as he thought over his first meeting with the hedgehog girl, when her crush was still in the 'hero worship' faze rather than the 'deeply in love with' faze.

There was the time Knuckles had been manipulated into thinking Sonic was a thief while Eggman stole away the master emerald and the time Sonic had been forced to free dozen of animal critters Eggman had imprisoned over the land and turned into engines for his badnik robots for some ridiculous scheme. Heh, that was his very first time kicking the mad scientist's butt.

He had dozens of memories. Racing through the green hill zone with Tails at his side. Twisting and turning through the pipelines of the chemical plant zone. The freezing snow and ice of the ice cap zone.

So many memories he knew had happened, that he had lived through and experienced.

And yet the dream still seemed to haunt him. That, admittedly very pretty chipmunk princess that Eggman had turned into a robot to make him fight, the memory of a nanobot city he was fighting so hard to protect, the faces of so many different people, some familiar and some he had no clue about.

It had all felt so real.

It was more than just images that flashed through his mind. There were emotions linked to them. Friendship, regret, love, anger, sadness. Emotions so strong they felt almost tangible. Looking in his mind at the dream image of Tails, and the memories of the one here at this picnic, gave him the same feeling of brotherly love and affection.

Why was this dream affecting him so much? Why did it feel so powerful… so real?

With his eyes closed and his mind so lost in thought, he didn't see the incoming projectile before it was too late.

A green ball slammed into his stomach with such force that all the breath was knocked from his lungs. He eyes went wide with pain and surprise, getting only a brief glimpse of the attack and the sheer shock displayed from his friends before the force of the impact smashed him through the tree he had been laying beneath and grinding him into a hard groove in the ground.

His body rag dolled before coming to a hard stop, dirt and splinters now caught in his quills and a rapidly forming bruise over his torso. He gave a pained wince, his arms wrapping around himself in reflex before squinting up at his attacker.

The green ball bounced back, unfurling to reveal another hedgehog of Sonic's height. In fact, physically he looked almost identical to Sonic. Long quills sprouting from his back and head, the same build and shape and even exuding the same level of cocky confidence.

But for all the similarities, there were several important differences too. The hedgehog's coat was green instead of blue, and his eyes were blue instead of green, like a complete reversal. Instead of the same smooth beige stomach fur, the assailant had two deep scars that crossed his chest. He was also garbed in clothing beyond simply gloves and shoes. He had a black leather jacket with images of flames on the shoulders, and a pair of sporty red trimmed sunglasses on his head. The smirk on his face was far darker then Sonic's own and it was further offset by his sharp, shark-like teeth.

As Sonic looked the hedgehog over, something within him, within the memory of his strange dream, seemed to recognize him. He couldn't place a name or even a memory of ever having met the attacker, but something within Sonic told him that the other hedgehog was familiar and dangerous.

"Hey what's the big idea jerk!"

Behind the two hedgehogs, the rest of Sonic's friends had gotten over their shock and had now pulled themselves into ready combat stances. Knuckles had uncrossed his gauntlets and held them out ready, just waiting to pound the intruder into mulch. Tails' namesakes were twirling about like propellers, slowly lifting him from the ground, ready to assist his friends from the air. The one who had spoken, Amy, stood firm, her piko piko hammer pulled from the ether and held up aggressively, holding herself in front of Cream and Cheese who looked scared and confused by this sudden turn of events.

The angry question actually seemed to confuse the hedgehog, who half turned himself toward the group, still keeping himself primed to move should Sonic get back to his feet.

"What'ya think the big idea is genius. Revenge obviously!"

This seemed to stump the group for a second before Sonic himself spoke up.

"Revenge? What the heck did I ever do to you? I don't even know you!"

This really got the green hedgehog angry, turning himself full on to Sonic and growling with his hands now balling into fists.

"Don't know me! Don't know me! HOW THE HELL DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME!"

Before anything else could be said, a figure leapt from the trees, metal tip boots slamming into the back of Knuckles head. As the echidna collapsed to the ground with a solid thump, the figure used the kick as a spring board to flip through the air and land in front of a startled Amy. The figure, revealed to be a red vixen clad in leather, had landed with her body facing the pink hedgehog, a hand placed on her hip in a bored gesture, but her face was turned to Sonic with an annoyed inquisitiveness on her muzzle.

"A good question Blue. After all, I was pretty certain that trying to take over Mobius and snatching away your Freedom HQ were attention worthy feats."

Silence filled the area before, with a groan; Sonic pulled himself to his feet drawing the full attention of the enemy hedgehog and fox. He looked the two over for a moment before raising his hands in a calming gesture.

"Ok look. I think there's some kind of misunderstanding here. My friends and I here don't know you guys. I have no idea what a 'Mobius' is or why we would have someplace called Freedom HQ, but it's obvious you have been misinformed about us somehow. Look my name is Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog, and my friends and I here have no beef with you guys."

A pained moan cut him off as Knuckles pulled his face out of the dirt and dragged himself back to his feet. "Speak for yourself." He growled, wincing as he gingerly rubbed the large bump on his head.

Sonic just shook his head before turning back to the two aggressors ensuring he had their full attention.

"Look, if you calm down and explain what is happening here, maybe we can help. I don't know why you're so angry, or why you think we should know who you are, but I promise we will listen and do our best to help you."

Sonic felt proud of himself for his words. Being civil and trying to talk things out wasn't one of his strong points, but these two were clearly just confused. Surprise attack aside, they obviously had the wrong guy in their sights and had been misinformed. He still had no idea what the heck the two had been talking about with a 'Mobius' and a 'Freedom HQ', but they obviously had a pretty severe grievance with somebody.

Still though, the sense of familiarity felt so strong. The green hedgehog and the fox were setting off warnings all through him, but until he could figure out what the heck the dream was all about, he wasn't about to just up and attack someone.

Both intruders definitely seemed to have calmed down at his words, but his concern rose slightly when it appeared they were completely baffled.

"You don't know what a Mobius… Why you'd have a Freedom… Misinformed… the hell?"

The green hedgehog looked completely lost and starting to get annoyed again. The fox, seeming just as confused, stepped away from Amy, who at the lack of aggression being displayed had lowered her hammer slightly, though hadn't made it disappear yet.

The vixen strolled over until she stood beside the green hedgehog, now placing both hands on her waste and leaning forwards to look Sonic over with sharp eyes. After examining him for a moment she leaned back and spoke.

"Does Mobotropolis ring any bells for you?"

Again the strange dream seemed to let him recognize the word. The image of the nanobot city seemed to briefly cross through his mind before it was gone once more, lost in the dreams haze. Unsure and confused, Sonic simply shook his head at the question.

The fox nodded before raising a hand to her chin and speaking again, even while the hedgehog beside her watched her curiously.

"What about Moebius? The No Zone? The Zone of Silence?"

Once more, brief hazy images crossed through Sonic's mind, still unfocused and without true context. He once again shook his head in the negative, even with his confusion mounting more and more.

His response seemed to satisfy the fox as she nodded her head and turned to her companion.

"Ok Babe I think I know what's going on here."

While the term 'Babe' seemed to show that the two partners were clearly close to Sonic and his confused friends, the jacket clad hedgehog just crossed his arms looking more and more annoyed by the events going on.

"Alrighty then, care to share or are we just gonna keep playing twenty questions with the chump?"

While Sonic took some offense at the name calling, the vixen smiled and leaned in close to the scarred hedgehog. "It's actually not that complicated. I'm kind of embarrassed it took me this long to work it out."

She gestured at Sonic, but her gaze remained firmly on her companion.

"Clearly Kintobor must have changed the zone coordinates somehow on the globe posts. This isn't Mobius Prime. We're in some different Zone entirely. This is Sonic and his lame friends, but these versions have never met us, or left their Zone, and they likely have a different name for their planet instead of Mobius. They aren't the Sonic and pals we're looking for."

The green hedgehog blinked for a moment before giving a loud groan and face palming, while the vixen just crossed her arms with a smirk.

Sonic meanwhile was even more confused, as were the rest of his friends. "What the heck are you guys talking about? Mobius Prime, different versions of us? Look I don't know what's up here, but I can tell you that there is only one Sonic the hedgehog and you're looking at him."

At this statement, both newcomers gave a sharp laugh before turning to Sonic, both now looking very smug.

"Heh, sorry Blue but that's where you're wrong. See I go by Scourge now, but my real name," the hedgehog flipped his sunglasses up so his eyes were completely uncovered as he stared straight into Sonic's own. "Is Sonic the hedgehog."

The group all gave a sharp gasp at this revelation, while Sonic looked annoyed.

"Wait what? What are you talking about? I'm Sonic the hedgehog!"

The green hedgehog gave a chuckle and tilted his head coyly.

"Sorry Blue, but that's where you're wrong. See you lot are a bit out of touch with the majority of the zones. There's a vast multiverse of different worlds out there, all of them strange and different. And a constant through almost all of them, is that there is a spiky blue annoyance named Sonic the Hedgehog. I however dragged myself out of the pointless quagmire of existing as a Sonic. I got myself an upgrade with Mobius Prime's master emerald. Turned myself into the mean green machine you see before you. I have reached the full potential of what a Sonic is, and I did it by not following your stupid moral code and dumb heroics. Instead I used my skills to become king of my world and have everyone on it give me the respect I deserve."

All niceness from Sonic's expression left, leaving only an agitated frown. "Let me get this straight. So there's a multiverse of worlds and they all have a Sonic. You are some different version of me and you took over a planet. Ok setting all the craziness of that aside, why in the heck are you mad at me… or a… that other Sonic you mentioned?"

The smug grin on Scourge's face fled, replaced by a nasty expression filled with loathing. "You wanna know why I hate him. I'll tell you why! Right when I had my world and his in the palm of my hands, that cheating blue prick managed to trick me and took it all away! Then the bastard had me locked up in the No Zone, the multiverse's most heavily guarded prison designed to hold criminals so bad they had to be taken from their worlds for the safety of all! If it hadn't been for my Fiona here, I'd still be in that hell hole!"

The fox, now addressed as Fiona, stepped over and draped herself over the fuming green hedgehog. Her presence seemed to calm him somewhat, but his angry glare didn't leave his face. The vixen tickled a finger under his chin sultrily, turning her smirking gaze over to Sonic.

"Mmm, yes, adding breaking out of the most heavily guarded prison in the multiverse to my resume was certainly fun. After all, no reason for the best Sonic of them all to be left out of play. He certainly knows how to have a good time better than other Sonic's."

Before Sonic, outraged over learning of Scourge's actions and feeling belittled by Fiona, could say another word, high pitched giggling echoed from behind everyone.

"Ooh, so you're the one who brought back my Scourgey Wourgey. You're so nice!"

Sonic and friends watched perplexed as Fiona moved away from Scourge with immense concern on her muzzle, while Scourge himself stood ramrod stiff, his eyes turning to pin pricks and all the color draining from his face.

"Oh please no…"

He, and everyone in the park, turned to see a new figure had emerged from the tree line behind Knuckles and Tails. They all blinked in shock at the sight of a pink hedgehog girl clad in a white shirt with a large tutu like green skirt. She was the same height and build as Amy, sporting the same green eyes, same lovely fur color and even sporting a cheery expression on her face. Her quills however were spiked back, rather like how Amy used to keep them in her youth, instead of kept short and curled down like she now preferred.

The Amy lookalike gave another giggle and waved enthusiastically at Scourge who had taken a step back, even seeming to shake slightly in clear fear.

Everyone stared in silence for a moment, before Amy suddenly brightened and chirped up. "Oh, I get it. You must be an Amy from Scourge's world. Ooh that's so sweet. You came all this way to our world to see your Sonic. You must love him just like I love my Sonic!"

Scourge looked panicked at this while everyone else kept glancing back and forth between the two Amy's, the green hedgehog's fear and the newcomer's cheerfulness giving them all a feeling of unease.

"Whenever I see my Scourgey we have just the bestest time don't we?" the hedgehog girl asked, holding her hands together in a sweet gesture and rocking back and forth gently on her heels in a childlike manner.

Scourge just backed up more until he was right next to Sonic, almost using the blue hedgehog as a shield. "Bestest time my ass! Stay the hell away from me Rosy!"

Amy watched the pair with glee, a bright smile on her face as she watched the romance of another Amy and Sonic.

This came to a rushing stop however as Rosy gave a demented laugh and produced a piko piko hammer from the ether, a spiked version that looked far more deadly than her own hammer.

"Ooh I can't wait to smash you to mush!"

With her eyes crazed and with laughter only someone psychologically deranged could produce, Rosy took a flying leap, hammer swung high, ready to crush Scourge to pieces.

Her attack however was cut short as Fiona intercepted her with a high kick, slamming into the crazy hedgehog's gut and sending her tumbling to the ground in front of Amy.

"Sorry sweetie, but you'll have to get your smashing kicks someplace else. Scourge is off the table."

Rosy gave a grumble then pulled herself to her feet, giving Fiona a childish glare. "You're a meanie pants! I thought you were nice but you kicked Rosy!"

Amy, extremely confused by this turn of events, reached out and took a hold of her counterpart's shoulder.

"Um Rosy, maybe you should calm down a little…" her sentence was cut off as Rosy swung around, slamming her hammer into Amy and hurling her away to the shock and outrage of her friends.

"You no touch Rosy! Rosy remembers you from last time! I never got to smush all those hedgies so now I'll start with you!"

"Hey leave her alone!" Sonic yelled, moving to knock the crazy girl out, only for a hand to grip his arm. He turned to see Scourge smirking at him malevolently.

"Heh, you may not be the Sonic I got issues with, but right now I need to decompress a little."

With a mighty swing, Scourge hurled Sonic air born, causing him to slam into a surprised Tails and forcing them both to collapse in a heap. They both groaned, looking up to see Scourge strolling towards them, cracking his knuckles, his smirk even wider.

"And nothing lets me relax more than beating down on an obnoxious blue hedgehog."

Suddenly an energy blast slammed into the jacket clad hedgehog's back, sending him crashing painfully into a tree. His glasses now sitting askew on his nose, Scourge gave a growl and turned to see who had suckered him in the back.

A damaged robot stood before him, missing a leg and with scraps and dents littering his chassis, but he held a cocky smirk and his left arm was converted into a canon which was aimed square at him.

"I may not be blue, but I've been told I'm exceptionally obnoxious but loads of people, so how about you and I take a dance and leave Sonic and his friends alone."

Scourge just glared, his teeth bared in a snarl, but before he could move to counter attack, Tails' translator machine sailed through the air and slammed into the metal hedgehog knocking him flat on his back.

"What so you can take us on yourself! Fat chance Eggbot! You don't look like a normal Metal Sonic, but we all know an Eggman machine when we see it!"

Shard glanced up to see Knuckle bearing down on him, fists raised to strike.

"Wait what!? I'm on your side! What are you doing!?"

He tried to defend himself, only for a spiked gauntlet to slam into his face, denting and scraping his exterior even more.

"Our side! Don't make me laugh!"

The echidna moved in to issue another punch when a green spin dash slammed into his back and bowled him over. Knuckles looked back up at Scourge, who smirked down at him in menace.

"Sorry bub, but that metal moron is mine. No one takes a swing at Scourge and walks away unscathed."

"Oh yeah, well I don't like it when loud mouth punks decide to hit me either!" Knuckles roared back throwing himself at Scourge in a dive, spiked gauntlets ready to pound him to bits.

Meanwhile, Amy had managed to pull herself up from the ground, only to utter a startled eep as a spiked green hammer came hurtling at her face. Acting on reflex she brought her own hammer up, just managing to deflect Rosy's attack before it could make contact, but she didn't get a moment to breath before the deranged pink hedgehog was back on her.

" _Ring around Rosy! Smashing makes me cozy! A smish smash! A crish crash! I'll crush you all down!_ "

Rosy laughed and sang, having herself a great time as Amy desperately duck and wove around the Moebian's heavy strikes. However despite her evasion efforts, Rosy performed a twirl and swung her hammer low, catching Amy off guard and tripping her up, knocking her onto her back. Rosy smiled at this, raising her hammer high for a finishing blow when suddenly she felt someone shove her from behind making her drop her stance and nearly trip.

Turning to glare at who dared to push Rosy, the hedgehog froze to see Cream, looking nervous but determined.

"Y-you leave Miss Amy alone."

Rosy's response was to giggle and hug her hammer close. "Ooh you look sooo cute! I'm gonna cut you open and stuff you full of cotton and take you home with me for tea parties!"

Cream looked terrified at this as Rosy raised her hammer for another strike, only for Tails to tackle her to the ground with a surprise attack.

"You leave Cream alone you weirdo!"

" _*Gasp*_ Don't call me names stupid head! Now Rosy's going to squish you dead!"

As the two wrestled out of the way, Cream helped Amy to her feet. However, before she could completely get her bearing, the pink hedgehog was kicked square in the ribs by Fiona who gave a laugh.

"Whoops, sorry sweetie, but I've had some aggression for Amy Prime for a while now. That happens when someone tries to flatten you with a hammer."

"I'll show you flattened with a hammer!"

The fox laughed and flipped away as Amy hurled herself from the ground and charged after her screaming and waving her hammer about menacingly.

Shard groaned and pulled himself up, doing his best to ignore the sparks now buzzing from the new cuts on his face.

"Well… that didn't go very well. Nicole, any idea why Knuckles would attack me? I mean I know we haven't officially met, but I figured Sonic would have told him about me by now."

Nicole's face appeared on the pad looking very alarmed at Shard's battle damage.

"I'm not sure. Maybe Sonic didn't tell him, or his dislike of technology is clouding his judgement. Perhaps if you speak with Sonic he can clear up the mess and you can work together to deal with Scourge and Fiona."

"Sorry, no idea who you are, but after the last greeting we just had and my experience with Eggman's robots, I'm gonna go with my gut on this one."

Shard looked up only for Sonic's kick to nail him in the face, further cracking his optic covering and sending his head for a spin. Before he could right his head back into the correct position, Sonic spin dashed straight into Shard's chest, throwing him back. Unfortunately the attack landed against Shard's power core gem, which released a spark of energy as it cracked. This spark danced along Sonic's nerves and caused him to frizz out and collapse in a twitching mess.

"Sonic! Damn you robot menace!"

Knuckles tried to make a charge at Shard, who was trying to flip his head around, only for Scourge to shoulder charge the guardian and force him to face plant in the dirt harshly.

"Worry about yourself Knuckle brain."

Knuckles just growled and then threw himself at Scourge. The scarred hedgehog laughed and dodged, but Knuckles managed to get a swipe in at his back. Scourge stumbled, but it didn't break the smirk on his face.

"You call that a punch? You're old man hits harder than that. I should know, he did give me these." He pointed to the twin scars on his chest, which Knuckles suddenly realized matched with the spikes on his gauntlets. This gave Knuckles pause.

His whole life, the only other echidna he had ever met was the ghostly Tikal imprisoned alongside Chaos within the master emerald. He had never known his parents or any of his family, only what ancient wisdom the echidna race had passed down, and his duty to protect the master emerald in their stead. Even if it was knowledge of a parallel world, the gaining any kind of knowledge of his family would be amazing.

"What do you know of my father?" he asked wearily, preparing to have his question ignored and have the jacket clad hedgehog re engage the fight.

Scourge however gave a laugh and held himself up haughtily. "His name was Locke or somethin' like that. I don't really care. All I know is he was a complete douche. He managed to get a swipe in at me, but the joke was on him. I powered up with the master emerald and became my glorious green self and then I wailed on the loser. Beat the old geezer senseless. He got what was coming to him soon enough. I heard he had to kill himself to save everyone from you after you fused with some energy dude and started trying to kill everyone. Not gonna lie, if I knew you were my son, I'd have killed myself too."

As Scourge started to laugh, Knuckles was seeing only red. How dare this other worlder insult the memory of his father, even a version he had never met.

Roaring with fury Knuckles slammed his fist into scourge's face, shutting him up, but the green hedgehog was quick to right himself and get back in the fight, and now he was pissed.

Sonic, meanwhile, gave a groan and pulled himself to his hands and knees.

"Man, why does stuff like this always happen when we're just trying to have a relaxing day. Jeez, what else could go wrong?"

Sonic had yet to truly grasp the concept of 'not tempting fate', but it was a lesson he really hoped to get down eventually as a large metal claw slammed down on his back and ground him into the dirt.

"Ho ho ho, what have we here? Sonic and his little pals having a party. And you didn't invite me. How rude Sonic, and here I brought you all gifts. Maybe dealing with my robots will teach you some manners. "

Sonic winced and looked up to see the metal claw was attached to one of several metal tentacles branching off from a spherical octopus-like machine . Around it were dozens of motobugs, robo wasps and other badnik robots.

And of course, sitting in a cockpit atop the machine was the laughing, Doctor Eggman.

As everyone started to realize they had another party to deal with in their struggles, the mad doctor pointed his finger down at them all, his teeth wide in a sadistic grin.

"Badniks attack!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

What had started out as a day of fun and relaxation with friends had suddenly become a chaotic battle of epic proportions.

Dozens of Eggman robots were assaulting the park in droves. Waspbots flew in tight formations, bombarding their targets with energy blasts. Motobugs zoomed about in random patterns, trying to squish anyone who got in their way. Eggrobo's attacked from the land and sky, shooting blasts from their hand canons and taking swings at anyone that came at them with their strong metal arms. Right in the center of the action however was Eggman's large Octopus-like mech. Dozens of metal tentacles flailed about left and right, trying to grab its enemies and crush them to jelly, or slam them into the ground and grind them to dust. At the controls sat the portly doctor himself, spinning about in quick succession trying to direct his troops.

His efforts however were being thwarted in rapid succession. Blue and green blurs raced around the park, trailing after images in their wake and smashing apart machines like they were tissue paper. However the robots were still in play, as for every badnik that was targeted, the two blurs continued to steer into each other, clashing heavily and knocking themselves about the field, only to soon enough zoom back for another attack.

Between the laser blasts and the speeding blurs, multiple tussles continued from the other combatants. Knuckles leapt forward smashing two motobugs together, only to be nailed in the back by a spiked hammer as Rosy gave a demented giggle. Her mirth came to an abrupt end however as Fiona used her head as a springboard, attacking several waspbots and evading the blasts of Shard as he did his best to navigate his damaged body through the battlefield.

The metal mobian fired a few more blasts from his canon at the agile fox, only for Amy to sledge him in the side with her mallet. The surprise attack was heavily damaging and the metallic hedgehog gave a cry of pain as warning systems flashed in his optics. Before Amy could press her attack though, several Eggrobo's began firing at her and she was forced to retreat, deflecting blasts from her hammer and using her speedy reflexes to evade their follow up strikes.

Tails spin dashed into a formation of waspbots, scattering the few he didn't manage to destroy, only for the green blur to leap at him. Scourge, laughing darkly, slammed his heel into the foxes head, smashing him into the ground harshly. Scourge's attack was avenged quickly however as Sonic used his own speed to slam into Scourge's back with a powerful punch. The green hedgehog pulled himself into a roll, landing on his feet in a skid, growling at Sonic's attack. Rocketing back off into high gear, the green blur slammed back against the blue blur and their racing battle continued, with several Eggrobo's being decimated in the process.

Fiona hauled herself atop a charging motobug, steering it into one of its brethren and causing them to both explode. Leaping clear just in time, the vixen gave a satisfied smirk. However her landing was halted as Cream, flapping her big ears to keep herself hovering in the sky, intercepted her in mid air, punching Fiona in the back. Small as the rabbit was, and having no leverage due to being air born, the punch was barely noticeable to Fiona, but it did throw her landing off course and cause her to land on her butt rather then her feet. The red fox gave a growl and jumped to her feet, intending to lunge back up and swat the little annoyance out of the sky, only for one of the tentacles from Eggman's mech to slam into her stomach and throw her across the field, knocking her breath away and leaving her winded.

Seeing the attack on his girlfriend from his peripheral vision, an enraged Scourge cut off his clash with Sonic and charged at Eggman's mech, curling into a ball and slicing through several of the tentacles like a buzz saw. Sonic in turn sought out a new target, hoping to give his friends some back up. Knuckles dodged Rosy's hammer strike, counter attacking with a powerful punch. The crazy pink hedgehog was a wily opponent however, and she managed to perform a back flip, evading his strike. The two were relatively evenly matched, with Knuckles having the clear strength advantage, but Rosy countering it with her speedy movement and strong hammer blows. However, Rosy had an advantage that Knuckles did not. As the echidna readied a punch, Rosy stepped back and wound up her hammer. The two attacked at the same time, but as Rosy's hammer was longer and had more reach, her attack struck first and slammed into Knuckles ribs.

Before he had a chance to pull himself back up, Rosy kicked him in the head laughing as she rose up her hammer for a killing blow. However two others had seen her strike and moved in to stop it. Sonic using a homing dash, rocketed into the hedgehog girl and send her trailing into the ground, cutting a deep groove through the dirt. His moment of victory was cut short as Shard, who had been attempting to strike Rosy with an energy blast, instead hit the blue hedgehog. As Sonic went flying, Knuckles gave an angry growl and leapt to his feet, fists swinging wildly.

"... well crap."

Shard gave a groan seconds before Knuckle's gauntlet smashed into his chassis and sent critical warning messages through his subroutines. His leg could barely support him and his chassis was almost completely open, his inner works exposed and showing clear signs of damage. The metal hedgehog desperately tried to reroute whatever power he could to keep his power core active and operational, lest he go offline and leave Nicole at risk.

As Knuckles wound up for a another hammer blow that likely would have knocked Shard's head clean off, several Eggrobos swarmed the echidna and forced him back. As he raced back further into the action, Amy somersaulted over him, smashing several of the Eggrobos with her hammer and and splitting there focus between the echidna and the hedgehog.

Tails groaned as he rose back up, rubbing his head from Scourge's strike, only to yelp and dodge as a missile from Eggman's mech shot passed him. Glaring at the Doctor, the young fox spun his tails and ascended into the air, flying straight for Eggman's cockpit. He was forced to change his direction however as several tentacles suddenly shot towards him at the rotund scientist's smirking command. As Tails weaved through the tentacle attacks, he felt someone grab his foot and drag him down. He shot his gaze at his feet to see Fiona had recovered and was using his legs like a swing. She flung herself in a twirl, landing upon one striking tentacle and using her impressive acrobatic abilities to flip and whirl from one to the other, weaving her way through the string of attacks and making her way towards Eggman.

Seeing this, the doctor panicked and disengaged the next tentacle the fox was due to leap to. The heavy metal appendage dropped to the ground with a mighty thud, leaving Fiona to roll passed and land in a series of hand stand flips, carrying her momentum forwards to crash a motobug as she did so. Flicking some broken gears off herself, the fox simply turned to Eggman and gave him a cheeky smirk.

Confused by this, the mustached villain turned back where the vixen had been leaping, only to see a green spiked ball heading straight for him. Unable to react in time, the Doctor could do nothing as Scourge slammed hard against the cockpit's fiber glass covering, managing to crack it, though not completely break through it. The force of the hit did knock the mech back though, forcing the now very annoyed Eggman to counter. Rapidly focusing on his controls he corrected the mech's balance by using several of the Octopus tentacles to brace the machine upright, having the unfortunate consequence of crushing several of his badniks in the process.

Angered at having destroyed his own machines, Eggman now squared his attention solely on Scourge who stood in front of the mech rudely taunting by flipping the bird and pulling his lower eye lid down while sticking his tongue out.

Fiona laughed, watching at a distance as the Doctor through a tantrum at Scourge's behavior before trying to crush her boyfriend with the mech's tentacle claws. The effort was in vain though as Scourge simply dodged and started racing through the badnik horde, shouting obscenities at Eggman as he did. The fox closed her eyes and shook her head, amused by the situation as Sonic raced into the middle of the fight (and rapidly regretted it as both combatants stopped their own fight to focus square on him). Suddenly though, a metal arm wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides and lifted her off her feet. Initially suspecting an Eggrobo, the vixen was surprised as she heard the Metal Sonic knock off start to speak.

"Alright Fiona, what the hell is going on here? Why are you and Scourge back here on Mobius?"

"Uh, don't know if you heard earlier, but this isn't Mobius numbnuts. This is a different Zone. As for how we got here, hows about you mind your own business and back off!"

Fiona swung her leg back, kicking against Shard and forcing herself free of his grasp. She swung herself around and held her fists up, prepared to fight back against this metal annoyance. However before either combatant could make a move, Nicole projected her avatar in between the two of them, her arms raised and her expression worried and confused.

"Wait Fiona! Please wait!"

Seeing the AI in a projected physical form, rather then simply hearing her voice from her pad or displayed on a viewing screen gave Fiona pause. She didn't release her combat stance, but she didn't lunge forward like intended. Shard likewise immediately lowered his canon, worried the blast might disrupt Nicole's image projectors if she got hit.

Seeing the temporary ceasefire, Nicole lowered her arms and gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank you. Now Fiona, you said this is a different Zone. How did you arrive at that conclusion? We arrived via chaos control and did not try to break through the dimensional barriers, simply transport ourselves from one location to another. If this is a different Zone, then I am unable to process how we arrived here."

Fiona's eyebrow raised at hearing the two had arrived via chaos control but otherwise listened intently. She had to admit, she was curious why Nicole was here. She didn't know who the robot with her was, but she was definitely familiar with the AI Lynx from her time with the Freedom Fighters. Seeing her here was extremely strange, as Fiona had only ever known her to be with Sally in the handheld or at Mobotropolis and Freedom HQ.

"Well, I figured out this was a different Zone because Sonic and his pals had some pretty large gaps in knowledge. They had no clue who Scourge and I were and when I asked them some questions, they told us they had no idea about Freedom HQ or that the planet was called Mobius. Only explanation I could think of was that Scourge and I had traveled to a different Zone rather then the Prime Zone like we intended."

Nicole seemed very troubled with this information, but seeing that Fiona was still cooperating, pressed on with her questions.

"I see. That is extremely odd. How did you arrive here in this Zone? Were you utilizing a warp ring or chaos control?"

Fiona shook her head, easing her stance a little, though she was still tensed and ready to move if need be. "No, neither of us have a warp ring anymore. We were on Moebius when some strange white energy hit the place and the rest of the Destructix, and basically everyone we could see, all disappeared into nothing. Predator had our warp ring on him when he went, so Scourge and I were forced to use the globe posts set up in Kintobor's tower before everything disappeared. We were knocked out by the transport though, which was pretty weird, and we woke up here in this forest instead of in the middle of Freedom HQ. We figured Kintobor had just reconfigured the posts for a different Zone or something."

"Wait did you say white energy?"

Fiona turned to see the Metal Sonic wanna be looked extremely concerned by this. She was about to comment when Nicole drew her attention back and an uneasiness grew in her at the horrified look on the Lynx's face.

"This white energy, did it move like a wave, seeming to erase everything it touched?"

Fiona did not like the feeling she was getting from Nicole and her metal friend, but she nodded. "Yeah, and it was massive. Stretched as far as the eye could see. We only just managed to get to the the posts before it engulfed everything."

Nicole started fiddling with her fingers, looking down and breaking eye contact with the fox. Shard stepped forward and wrapped his non canon arm around her in comfort, but Fiona could tell, he was certainly far from calm himself. Finally the Lynx spoke again, still not looking back at Fiona.

"You're... you're positive you used the same globe posts to transport here? They weren't some new creation?"

Fiona creased her brows but nodded again. "Definitely the same. With how quickly the building was disappearing, we didn't have time to search for something new or unfamiliar, we just went with what we knew."

Looking as though she had received news that was devastating but still expected none the less, Nicole bowed her head in thanks.

"I see... then it seems I know what has occurred. Why Shard and I are here, why you, Scourge and Rosy are here, and why no one knows who we are."

"Wait, what are you saying?"

Fiona's question went unanswered as Nicole closed her eyes and folded her hands to her front. Suddenly a loud high pitched whistle emanated from her pad, echoing over the park, even cutting through the sounds of laser fire and battle noise. The fox slammed her hands over her ears at the noise, gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes, trying to block out the horrible sound.

Around the battlefield, everyone froze. Knuckles and Tails had been back to back fighting off several badniks, when they collapsed holding their heads in pain from the noise. Amy and Rosy had been locked in a duel of hammers, with a scared Cream hovering nearby in an effort to do something to help, when the shrill screech forced them to abandon their weapons to protect their ears. Scourge, Sonic and Eggman had all been wrapped up in a scuffle, with the two hedgehogs bounding back and forth attacking each other, using the flailing metal tentacles like a jungle gym to reach one another. The sound pierced through their skulls and immediately all three combatants stopped all attacks, forced to try and shut out the sound.

Nicole kept it up for a few minutes before cutting the noise and letting everyone recover. Before they could question what had happened or resume fighting however, she added more power to her projection system and enlarged her avatar so it now stood three times as large. As everyone turned to stare at this new development, the AI spoke, projecting her voice out as though through a large speaker.

"Everyone, please cease your attacks. I have urgent news to tell you all. It is extremely important information you must all hear, even Doctor Eggman. Please, listen to what I have to say."

Hearing that this newcomer to the battle had news even the collective enemy of the group needed to hear was very alarming, but slowly, everyone straightened themselves out and approached the Lynx. Eggman remained in his mech, but he issued commands to his badniks to cease fire and piloted the Octopus closer to the group.

Seeing that everyone had agreed with this temporary ceasefire, Sonic turned to the Lynx (who had reduced her size once more to conserve her handheld's power reserves), eyebrow raised and with his arms crossed. "Ok, so you got everyone to stop fighting, which is great and all, but I gotta ask. Who are you, and whose the Metal guy with you, because he sure isn't acting like a normal Eggman robot?"

"That's because he's not an Eggman robot rodent. I don't know who built this machine, but it certainly wasn't me." Eggman harrumphed, annoyed and confused at seeing Shard for the first time.

This gave Sonic pause, but before he could ask further, the machine in question spoke up. "My name is Shard ok. Look its a bit of a long story, but to cut it short, I'm not an Eggman robot, at least not anymore, and I'm on your side I swear."

Knuckles didn't seemed convinced of this, but before he could throw in his own two cents, Nicole drew everyone's attention back to her.

"We can discuss this later. Please, you all have to hear what I have discovered. It is very alarming and concerns us all."

Scourge, getting annoyed he couldn't keep up his fight against Sonic and Eggman, stepped forward next to his girlfriend, but kept his glare squarely focused on the AI. "Well get on with it then!"

Shard didn't take the green hedgehogs tone well, especially aimed at his friend as it was, but Nicole sensed this and placed a soothing hand on the Robian's shoulder. They shared a look for a moment before the metal hedgehog calmed down and the Lynx turned to face the group.

"My name is Nicole and I have discussed with Fiona the events of how she, Scourge and likely Rosy arrived here on this world, and combined with knowledge of a white energy, which Shard and I also experienced whilst on Mobius, I have come to understand a very alarming piece of information. What I am about to say may take a moment, so please have patience."

Scourge didn't look happy about this, but Fiona slinking herself around him kept him from speaking up. Her presence always seemed to calm him these days.

Seeing she had everyone's undivided attention (even if Rosy seemed like she couldn't understand what was happening and would much rather be getting back to her smashies) the Lynx took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts, before beginning to speak.

"Shard and I come from a different world to this one, as does Fiona. That world is called Mobius, or Mobius Prime. Mobius Prime is the center of the multiverse. Every dimension that has formed, including Scourge and Rosy's world, Moebius, is all connected with Mobius Prime. Should it ever be completely destroyed or so fundamentally broken that it cannot function anymore, it will cause a ripple affect that will spread throughout the multiverse."

Eggman seemed to be following all this the easiest, but Tails seemed to grasp it all as well, even if he could tell Sonic was struggling a bit.

"On my world, our Eggman had devised a plan so horrendous that Sonic had been forced to confront him with everything he could. The Doctor had created a machine so powerful, it could alter reality itself. Sonic was sent to destroy this machine. However, while he was away, the city of Mobotropolis where Shard and I were residing, was hit with a powerful white energy which seemed to erase everything in its path. In a desperate move to escape, Shard managed to use chaos control to teleport the two of us away. Simultaneously, Fiona explained that on Moebius, she and Scourge were forced to escape from this same type of energy, and only managed to evade it by using a pair of specially designed globe posts which had a link with Mobius Prime. Rosy, I suspect, used a similar method to escape."

"Uh huh. I saw my Scourgey Wourgey jump through the posts, so I followed behind. He won't be running away from me this time." her dark smile at the hedgehog caused him to back up a little, and Fiona to shield him from Rosy's view.

Nodding her head in confirmation at this, Nicole continued on, finding it harder and harder to keep talking as she was about to reveal the horrible truth she had discovered.

"While Fiona believed the posts must have been reprogrammed to allow her and Scourge to arrive here, I'm afraid that isn't possible. Having thoroughly analysed the posts during Scourge's assault on Mobius Prime," Sonic glared at the jacket clad hedgehog as he smiled at hearing this, "I know that they were specifically designed to only create a link between Moebius and Mobius. They couldn't form any sort of connection to another world. Plus, while chaos control is capable of transporting individuals across different multiversal Zones, it requires a great deal of power and experience to do so. Shard's use of chaos control to save us at Mobotropolis was his first time ever using the ability. He couldn't have transported us to another Zone, simply teleported us to another location on Mobius Prime. However it is very clear that despite this, we are not on Mobius Prime. While there is a Sonic the hedgehog, and a Doctor Eggman here, there are no Freedom Fighter's, and no Mobotropolis. This leads me to one very unsettling conclusion."

Taking a another deep breath, Nicole closed her eyes and let forth the horrible truth.

"Doctor Eggman succeeded in changing reality."

As everyone gasped at this (including the Doctor himself), Sonic stepped forward looking cross.

"Wait, what are you saying. That this is Mobius, despite us having absolutely no knowledge of it or something?"

"I'm afraid Sonic that that is exactly what I am saying. The lives you have lived, the world that you have always known, is different then it was. It has been rewritten, altering everything within it. This unfortunately had another side effect however. As I mentioned, the destruction of the Prime Zone affects all the Zones, and so, when Mobius was altered, so was every other Zone in existence. They are likely all completely different now, some possibly even ceasing to exist entirely, or being so rewritten that they are unidentifiable as the worlds they were. The only individuals who have any knowledge of the world as it was are myself, Shard, Rosy, Scourge and Fiona. By using methods that transported us off the physical plain of existence at precisely the right moment, we unintentionally escaped the rewriting of reality. That is why when Shard used chaos control we did in fact arrive in a new location on Mobius Prime, or at least what was Mobius Prime, and why the Moebian's were able to use the globe posts to do the same."

Scourge, for once looking far more concerned then angry or smug, stepped forward hands hung loose beside him. "So what you're sayin' is, my world is either completely gone or completely different, and with the globe posts not existin' here, I have no way to get back to check either way."

Nicole gave a solemn nod. "I'm afraid so Scourge. Until I can analyse further, we have to assume that is the case."

Scourge was silent for a moment before letting out an angry yell. However, while Shard and Sonic tensed, ready to pounce, the green hedgehog did not attack. Instead he turned and marched away from the group, raving and ranting as he did so."

"That's just freakin' perfect! So the Sonic whose ass I wanna kick doesn't exist anymore, I have no capacity to pillage and burn Moebius down to the ground and now I'm stuck here on this stupid planet that can't even use the right freakin' name! Graaaah!"

As the group watched this, all contemplating Nicole's words and processing the knowledge that their entire life had been altered, Eggman had different thoughts.

This Nicole individual had said that their was an Eggman on her world, so smart as to have created a machine that could alter reality. If that Eggman could do that, what would _he_ be able to do if he could get more knowledge of this previous reality?

A devious idea formed in his mind.

Before anyone could say anything else, Eggman slammed down several buttons on his control panel. At once, all the badniks, which had been lying around unresponsive, immediately reactivated, weapons systems re engaged. The tentacles on his Octopus mech shot forward grabbing at specific targets. A startled Fiona, Cream and Rosy were immediately grabbed, while a fourth tentacle shot at Shard.

Seeing this, a split second before the claw could grasp him, the metal mobian hurled Nicole's pad at a startled Tails the fox, who caught it on reflex.

"Protect her! Protect her with your life!"

Nicole shouted to Shard, but he had no response as Eggman's mech squeezed his already damaged body hard. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, as the warning messages that had been flashing in Shard's vision reached a critical mass. His power core sparked and then fell dark, along with the rest of his systems. The robot had only a split second to give his AI companion a mournful look before his eyes faded from his cracked visor and his limbs fell limp, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

While Cream and Rosy struggled in their grip, Fiona, who had already suffered years of imprisonment at the Prime Mobius' Doctor's hands, began to thrash wildly, her eyes panicked and scared.

"Scourge help me!"

The hedgehog in question, who after having distanced himself from the group had been cordoned off by Eggman's badniks, heard her cry. Looking up in alarm, Scourge zoomed forward, smashing through the Eggrobo's and motobugs, heading straight for his girlfriend.

However he was not fast enough. Several engines morphed out from beneath Eggman's mech, and the machine rocketed up into the air trailing jets of flame. As the tentacles all flung about wildly, Scourge leapt, hand outstretched to grasp Fiona's. They were millimeters apart, but it was still too far.

The Mech shot off into the air, Eggman's laughing echoing in his wake, while his screaming captives continued to call out for help. Scourge landed in a roll, his eyes wide and panicked as he watched the madmen make off with his girl.

"Fiona!" he screamed, turning to give chase by the ground, but the remaining badniks blocked his path. Without Eggman to coordinate them, the machines were nothing but a delay. But a critical one.

Sonic and the rest of his friends moved in beside him, destroying the last of the robots, but it was no good. By the time the last machine exploded, Eggman and his victims, were long gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"DAMN IT!"

"Dude calm down!"

Scourge was pounding into the wrecked remains of an Eggrobo, his eyes locked in a fiery glare, ignoring Sonic's efforts to tug him away. All the green hedgehog could think of was Fiona being snatched away by that fat bastard. He was going to make Eggman pay for taking his girl. If that son of a bitch hurt her he'd rip his head off!

Sonic was a mix of emotions, but after having suffered the kidnapping of his friends at Eggman's hands more then once in the past, he had a clearer mind then Scourge right now. He had honestly not expected this outburst from his counterpart. He had admittedly only just met the dimensional duplicate, but if he was anything like Sonic was, it was strange to see him this upset. Sonic knew he had had his fair share of emotionally angry moments courtesy of Eggman, but Scourge's rage was something else.

A short distance away Amy struggled to keep herself in check, absently patting a visibly upset Cheese. Already she was greatly upset at Cream's kidnapping, but she could also feel turmoil for the newcomer to the group. Nicole had recoiled in on herself, hugging herself tightly and trying to figure out what to do in a vain attempt to not let herself become overwhelmed at the loss of her companion. Amy couldn't begin to think of how the Lynx must have been feeling. To discover her entire world was gone, changed completely, only to have the one person she could feel at home with stolen away. It must have been beyond devastating.

Amy could see her friends felt just as bad. Knuckles was pacing back and forth quietly berating himself, claiming he should have moved faster to stop Eggman, or did something to try and grab onto his friend before she was grabbed. Tails beside him held Nicole's pad, feeling as though despite its size, it weighed a tone, at least with Shard's desperate task placed on his head.

Worse still, a deep guilty part of Amy felt that Cream and the others kidnapping wasn't the most shocking thing today. Knowing her whole life, every decision she had ever made, every step on the path that forged her identity, was dictated by a mad man's goal to reshape the multiverse. That she may have once been an entirely different person, had different motivations and goals, treaded down a path completely at odds with her own. It was extremely unsettling and would likely be on her mind for a long time to come.

However, as the pink hedgehog took another glance over at Nicole she realized something important. As strange and horrifying as the news of her reality was, they had far more pressing matters to address.

Now determined in her thoughts, Amy had had enough moping. Placing Cheese onto her shoulder she marched into the center of the group.

"Alright everybody that's enough!"

Immediately she got a response. Nicole raised her head, her eyes still filled with grief, but focused none the less. Knuckles stopped pacing and both he and Tails turned their attention to the pink girl. Scourge ceased his needless pummeling, but his glare almost made Amy clammer up until she saw the thankful and encouraging look on Sonic's face. The look was enough to fill her with confidence, and she held herself strong as she drew all attention.

"Look, we can all sit here feeling upset, but that won't do anything to help our friends."

She turned to Nicole with a sympathetic smile. "Right now we're worried about our friend, and it's obvious your worried about yours. We might not understand why your hanging out with a robot, but it's clear you care about him."

As Nicole gave a brief but thankful smile at the acknowledgement of her friendship with Shard (even if Knuckles gave a slight scoff, before Tail smacked him in the back of the head), Amy then turned to Scourge and her expression hardened a little, though she tried to keep a positive look on her face. "And while you aren't our favorite guy right now," Scourge just scoffed, but stood up and dusted himself off, "It's clear you definitely want to get your friend back too."

"She's more then a friend Pinky, and hell yeah I want her back, so hurry up and get to the point so I can go track Eggman down and break the pricks nose."

Ignoring his cursing, Amy nodded at his request and continued. "Right now Eggman has taken someone from all of us, plus Rosy," Scourge gave an involuntary shiver that Sonic smirked at, "So how about we form a temporary truce here and work together to save them all?"

The green hedgehog scrutinized her for a moment before flipping his sunglasses back over his eyes and scoffing. "I can track her down on my own. Eggman doesn't scare me, so why in the heck should I team up with you losers?"

"Because we want to save our friends too, and together we'd be much stronger then fighting separately."

Nodding at Amy's response, Nicole stepped forward as well. "You've worked with Sonic in the past Scourge, for far lesser reasons then saving someone important to you. Fiona turned away from everyone for you once. Don't you owe it to her to give everything you can to save her in turn, even if it means working alongside your enemy temporarily?"

Scourge's expression hardened at the mention of Fiona's choice to follow him, but Nicole was surprised by the soft worried face that followed. She had never seen Scourge care about anyone but himself. Right now though, the thought of saving Fiona definitely mattered more to him. This was certainly curious.

The jacket clad hedgehog grumbled for a moment before finally crossing his arms with a _humph_ and turning away as he nodded his head.

Amy and Nicole both smiled at his choice (with Knuckles looking just as unhappy as Scourge did by the whole thing while Tails tried to hide his concern lest he upset the already saddened AI further) with the pink hedgehog even clasping her hands together in joy. Beside Scourge, Sonic closed his eyes and crossed his arms looking smug.

"Well well, working together with people you don't like to save someone you care about. I guess you are a Sonic just like me after all."

Having closed his eyes, he didn't see the incoming fist heading straight for his nose.

With a mighty _wham_ , Sonic was knocked to the ground, bouncing for a second before Scourge leered over him, grabbing the hedgehog by his chest fur and hauling him to his feet.

The rest of the group was shocked, especially an enraged Knuckles, but before anyone could do anything, Scourge glared at Sonic with a dark growl.

"Let's get somethin' straight here blue. I'm working with you to save Fiona and nothin' else. As soon as I've beat the crap out of that eggheaded idiot, I'm comin' after you next. So don't act all smug or pretend like we're suddenly gonna be besties when all is said and done. When this is over, we're back to bein' enemies and I'm gonna show you a world a hurt, you understand me. Now keep your trap shut and we can make it through this quick and quiet so neither of us have to think about it again."

With that, the angry hedgehog shoved Sonic back over and turned to walk away, but not before glancing back with one more remark. "Never tell me I'm 'just like you' or I'll show you just what _this_ Sonic is capable of, truce or no truce."

Having said his piece, the green hedgehog marched away from the group to lean against one of the few intact trees left over from their previous skirmish. Sonic watched him with annoyance and genuine bafflement for a moment before turning back to the group, only to be whomped by Amy as she pulled him into a choking hug.

"Oh Sonic, are you ok?"

After a brief struggle, Sonic managed to gently pry the overly concerned hedgehog girl off of himself so he could look her in the eyes. "I'm fine Amy, really. I just don't get that guy is all. Whatever, so long as he holds off on picking a fight, I can still work with him. I mean if we can work with Shadow, I'm sure we can deal with Mr 'Bad Boy' over there just fine."

The two rose back to their feet and joined the group, only for Tails to voice a question that he had been thinking over ever since Eggman escaped.

"So, I'm glad we're all on the same page here and putting this fight on hold, but I've gotta ask. How are we going after Eggman? I mean we can head back to my lab and try to track him with my computer, but that's going to take a while and I don't like the idea of leaving Cream and the others with Eggman for too long. Who knows what he may do."

The question stumped Sonic for a moment, as generally Eggman tended advertise his position quite easily to draw his nemesis out in a poor attempt to destroy him. Eggman rarely tended to do stealth well, but even on the rare times he tried, Tails or G.U.N. tended to be able to track him down easily enough. Those times however, he didn't have hostages, or if he did, they were just bait and nothing more. Whatever he was up to this time, he had clearly chosen his targets for a reason, not simple chance, as with how drawn into Nicole's explanation everyone was, he could have taken just about anyone in the group during his attack.

However before he could think of a response, Nicole stepped forward.

"I may be able to assist. Without access to a computer network, my abilities are limited. However my pad does have a tracking system installed which can locate Shard. While he was damaged during his capture, his homing beacon is heavily shielded so he can be retrieved if he suffers extensive damage in the field and is unable to return to the base for repairs. It will take a moment for me to activate the tracker with my pad's limited power systems, but we should be able to use it to locate where the Doctor has taken our friends."

Cheese cooed in relief on Amy's shoulder, while the pink hedgehog smiled in response. "That's great Nicole. With your help we'll have them all back in no time."

The group waited silently as Nicole began to run through her systems and begin the activation sequence for her tracking system. However, as she did so, a thought occurred to Sonic.

"Hey Nicole, I have a question for you."

The AI turned to him with a smile. "What is it Sonic, I'll be happy to help however I can."

Getting his thoughts together for a moment, Sonic looked back at Scourge who was resolutely ignoring the group, impatiently waiting against his tree until it seemed everyone was ready to move. Turning back to the Lynx, the blue hedgehog asked, "So I've been thinking of something. Mr 'Anger Management Run-away' over there certainly doesn't come across as the friendly type. And if he's an evil me, he likely isn't much of a team player. So why is he so hung up on that Fiona girl? I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad he seems to actually care about her, but it doesn't really seem in character for the guy."

A slight frown came to Nicole's face as she answered, "That is a question that has confused me as well. While I do not have extensive knowledge of Fiona's time with Scourge, his behavior from every other meeting he had with Sonic and the Freedom Fighters leads me to believe he likely shouldn't care about her, at least not anymore then anyone else."

"What does she even see in a guy like that. I mean, setting aside his feelings for her or whatever, he's clearly bad news. Why would anyone ever want to be with someone like that?" Tails asked, confused and concerned. He hadn't had any real chance to speak with the fox, but she had definitely caught his attention (he really fought hard not to think of how pretty she looked, lest he start blushing in front of everyone).

As the tracking software continued to boot up, Nicole decided to lay out what she knew for the group.

"Fiona is a complicated individual. Her past has affected her in some very dark ways and changed who she is, and who she could have become. At a young age she was captured, along with dozens of Mobians, by Dr. Robotnik. She suffered there for a long time, and was even used as a base model for the mad man's first robot replica experiment, using a robot duplicate of her to try and trick Tails and capture him. During a raid by Sonic to break out several captured Mobians from the mines they were enslaved in, Fiona, whom Sonic hadn't been aware was held separately to the others, was left behind. She blamed Sonic for this, believing he left her behind deliberately, and let it color her world view, believing that she couldn't count on anybody."

The others all looked very disturbed by this, Sonic in particular, feeling as though, despite this never happening to him in this new reality, that he was, at least partially responsible for Fiona being forced to suffer further at Robotnik's hands. Nicole gave a slight sigh, remembering what happened next, but she continued regardless.

"She spent another two years imprisoned before finally managing to escape on her own, only to find her family gone, furthering her feelings of abandonment. She spent a few years working together with a treasure hunting criminal named Nic, later joining two thieves named Bean and Bark to perform heists and break ins, learning to enjoy the darker side of life. This all changed though when she helped and then joined the Freedom Fighters, making an effort to change her life around for the better. During this time, she even worked through her grudge against Sonic, and came to care about him deeply. It was then she met Scourge for the first time."

The AI gave a hard look at the green hedgehog, who just ignored her gaze and continued to wait against his tree, his annoyance growing with how long it was taking.

"During their first meeting Scourge hadn't undergone his transformation and still looked identical to Sonic. He had been kicked out of his gang on Anti Mobius and so devised a scheme to switch places with Sonic, leaving him trapped on Anti Mobius and Scourge free to roam about the Prime Mobius. He assumed Sonic's identity and used the opportunity to flirt with several female Freedom Fighters, including you Amy."

Sonic and Amy both looked at each other for a moment before looking away awkwardly. Tails and Knuckles gave a slight chuckle to the twos embarrassment, but Nicole had mercy and continued on.

"One of the girls he flirted with was Fiona. She took a genuine liking to him, only for the ruse to eventually be discovered and Scourge was forced to flee, joining up with Rouge to go after the Master Emerald and take on the form he has now. Having found a real connection however, Fiona chose to then form a relationship with Sonic, hoping to find in him what she had seen in Scourge."

Sonic looked supremely surprised to hear this, while Amy snuck him a jealous glare. This further amused Knuckles and Tails, but the two immediately shut up when Amy turned to them, a vein in her fore head pulsing and her hammer spawning from the ether. Sonic tried to wrap his head around the idea of him dating Fiona. She wasn't unattractive by any stretch, but he couldn't really see what had drawn him to her. Perhaps if he got to know her he might see it, but for now, it was definitely a surprising revelation.

As Amy calmed herself and Sonic regained his focus, the AI continued. "While the two did hit it off, Fiona soon found that while he was similar to Scourge, Sonic's noble nature didn't draw her in the way Scourge's darker outlook did. Unbeknownst to Sonic, she began to secretly have an affair with Scourge, seeing him behind Prime Sonic's back. This continued for a while until Sonic, beginning to grow suspicious of Fiona's long absences and concerned after she and Amy got into a fight, confronted the fox. Tired of the ruse, Fiona admitted her actions and joined up with Scourge when he arrived on the scene, upsetting Sonic greatly, as well as breaking Tail's heart, whom had had a crush on Fiona for years since the incident with her robot replica Robotnik created."

Amy looked angered to hear this, but also sympathetic, turning to her blue companion with a sad frown. Sonic looked troubled at the news but had no comment. Knuckles said nothing either, but he noticed that Tails also looked upset at this news, particularly about having a crush on the vixen and having his heart broken. As the group all processed this, Scourge over at his tree was starting to get impatient, glaring at the group in an effort to will them to hurry up whatever they were doing.

"Fiona and Scourge showed up now and then after that, getting in the way and causing trouble, until finally Scourge took over Anti Mobius, renaming it Moebius and naming Fiona his Queen. She aided him in his attack on the Prime Mobius, joined by the Suppression Squad, Scourge's old gang, made up of the Anti Mobius copies of the Freedom Fighters. The Squad however hated Scourge and staged a mutiny, joining forces with the Freedom Fighters to take Scourge down. Fiona was the only one who remained loyal to Scourge, despite her outlook on abandonment. While she was forced to flee the battle after Scourge was trapped back on Moebius with Sonic, she later joined forces with a gang called the Destructix, looking to find Scourge once more. Evidently she succeeded in breaking him out of the No Zone somehow and the two have likely been together ever since."

"Scourge has only ever seemed to care about his own well being above anything else, but for whatever reason, something in him resonates with Fiona. What it is I can't say, but clearly something about her motivates him, at least to enough to convince him to risk his on life to save her. Speaking of which," Nicole turned to her pad, holding it up for the group so they could see the image displayed showed a blinking red dot overlaid over a map starting from their location. "My tracker is now online and operational. If you have no further questions, I think it's time we head out and save our friends."

"Bout time you losers got things goin'. I was about ready to ditch you all and start lookin' on my own."

The group was startled to find that Scourge had snuck up on them all, appearing quite agitated at how long things had been taking. Saying nothing further, the green hedgehog glanced at Nicole's map, nodded his head and started off.

Sonic gave a sigh then nodded to the group to get moving, leading them all at a run they could all keep up with. It was time to save the day.

* * *

"Now then, time to a take a look inside you my mysterious machine."

Eggman stood over an operating table hosting the damaged body of Shard. Upon arriving in his base he knew he'd need to act fast. Sonic and that Scourge fellow were fast enough that they'd be here within the hour. He had to quickly set up the outer security devices and bolster them with more of his egg forces. With his luck he doubted it would finish the blue pest and his friends off, but it would slow Sonic down long enough for him to finish his new mission.

After setting up security, he'd had his prisoners all confined in cells deeper into the facility. Cream he was familiar with. It paid to always have tight security around her, lest she use her small form to evade detection and escape. He'd been caught unawares by that too many times in the past, not this time. The two newcomers though he made sure to have extra reinforced cells. The Hedgehog Rosy was insane, there was no other explanation for it. One moment she'd be as sweet as a button, the next she'd be salivating at the bit to tear out his jugular. No wonder Scourge had seemed so scared by her. Eggman certainly didn't enjoy having her in his facility, but better she be imprisoned then let loose during whatever rescue operation Sonic could slap together.

It was the fox who had the most curious reaction however. She had seemed quite calm and sly earlier on the field, using her acrobatic skills with ease and using her feminine charms to keep her green boyfriend from flipping his lid. However upon her capture she had at first struggled with such force that Eggman had been concerned she might actually break free of her holdings. It wasn't until she was actually placed within her reinforced cell that her behavior took a dramatic shift. She seemed to just completely shut down. Huddling herself in a corner, looking like a frightened child trying to avoid getting hit by an abusive elder. Very curious behavior indeed. It suited his interests however so he left her be. Perhaps he'd interrogate her later, see if he could work out what had triggered this so he could apply it to future prisoners. Having Sonic acting like that would bring him more joy then he could think of.

But that could wait for later. For now, he had a curious robot to examine. This 'Shard' definitely held a lot of qualities that resembled his Metal Sonic, but several key differences too, such as his hand canon and the odd gem fragment housed in the machine's chest cavity. It made him extremely curious. Why would someone make a Metal Sonic robot if they weren't going to use it to attack Sonic? What would be the point.

The Doctor had spent years of his life perfecting his craft and designing newer, bigger, badder and more powerful robots day after day, so taking Shard apart and getting into his internal systems was no difficult feat. However what he found inside had him extremely confused. While externally the robot was definitely sleek and well designed (or at least would be if it hadn't suffered so much damage) internally this was not the case. Setting aside the damage that was rampant through the robots systems, Eggman was perplexed by the electrical layouts and neural pathways. This Shard machine was built like a Frankenstein mishmash of several machines. He recognized several key systems that were identical to his machines, with the majority clearly taken from a Metal Sonic, but there were others that he hadn't previously designed (or well, more the _other_ Eggman designed), with different sized components fitting together at random, as though the creator had just used whatever make shift parts they could to get the machine working.

It was definitely a genius design, he'd give the creator that at least. After all, building robots was a delicate work, and using incorrect parts and components could result in malfunctions and severe internal damage over prolonged use, but Shard appeared perfectly operational and without fault save for the lack of uniform in the part designs. The power core of the machine seemed directly tied to the gem on the machine's chest. Using a gem as a power source would allow for greater energy refraction and power output. Still it was slightly limited in that it would need recharging, rather then the self sustaining design of his Metal Sonic. Still it was a versatile and powerful machine this 'Shard', definitely a creative and unconventional design.

However Eggman was a perfectionist, and the wonky looking design was far from aesthetically pleasing and did limit Shard's functions. It was likely the machine's peek strength and speed would currently match his latest upgrades to Metal Sonic, but the otherworldly creation couldn't be any further upgraded himself, and would soon be outmatched as Metal Sonic continued to be improved upon.

"Perhaps I should give you some _modifications_." Eggman smirked darkly, however he didn't let himself lose focus. There would be plenty of time to work on the machine later. For now, he had a much more important job.

Connecting the robot's memory storage drive to his computer system, the Doctor began downloading Shard's stored memories. What he discovered was extremely fascinating. Knowledge of his counterpart's control over the world of Mobius, save for the rebellion of Knothole and the Freedom Fighters. Lists of resources at the tyrant's disposable, dwarfing Eggman's own. Legions of troops, making his own fleet look pathetically tiny in comparison.

His counterpart had definitely flourished on his world, even if he too struggled against the annoyance of Sonic and his friends. So many machines, so many plans, letting him hold over 90 percent of the world in his grasp. It filled Eggman with both pride and envy. This version of himself had an entire resistance movement built against him and he'd still succeeded in taking almost the entire world under his control. In comparison, Eggman had only Sonic and a handful of his friends fighting against his efforts to create his Eggman Land, and yet the spiky blue irritation had beat him soundly every time.

What was he doing wrong that his counterpart had managed to learn?

Perhaps it lay in his weapons and resources. The Doctor turned his focus from Shard's memories of the world at large to lists of his counterpart's weapons systems and robotic designs. Perhaps they were built in a different form to his own and were more successful because of it.

Schematics and different configurations of buildings materials sped passed his eyes rapidly, but more and more he was unable to tell what had given his counterpart such an edge.

Then suddenly he saw it.

A dark twisted smile crossed his face as he read over the previous reality Eggman's ultimate weapon. It was ingenious, practical and menacingly horrible all at once. It was beautiful to the mad Doctor's eyes.

"If I can replicate this technology, there is no way that Sonic and his merry band of fools can stop me. At last my plans for Eggman land will come to fruition. Thank you my metallic friend, your memories have sealed this worlds fate!"

Shard's body lay inert as Eggman's malevolent laughter echoed around the base.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Darkness bathed the dank and dreary walls of the cell block. Exposed piping and heavy metal plating were the only visible features as there were no windows and the lighting was so bare it may as well have been the middle of the night. A steady 'drip, drip, drip' from some leaky vent echoed around the room, but it was drowned out by one prisoner's cries.

"Ooh, you are such a meanie eggface! I wanna play so let me out! _Let me out so I can gut you open and play jump rope with your intestines_!"

Rosy's unstable personality kept flashing back and forth between a childlike annoyance and the desires of a deranged killer. She flipped about the cell like a 10 year old on a sugar rush, ineffectually swinging her hammer about in hopes it would damage the reinforced metal bars, not seeming to notice both her efforts and her threats were doing nothing.

In the cell beside her, Cream whimpered and hunkered down, trying to ignore the crazy hedgehog's ranting. This wasn't the first time that Doctor Eggman had chosen to kidnap her in one of his schemes, but that didn't make it any less scary, and being next to Rosy just made it all the more terrifying.

"U-uhm, M-miss Rosy. C-could you p-please stop y-yelling so much?" she asked timidly.

Rosy responded by flinging herself at the bars and staring dead on at the bunny with her unhinged grin spread wide.

"I'm gonna have so much fun with you when I get out little bunny. We're gonna have tea parties and play games like house or doctor _while I cut into your still screaming body and start pulling out your organs and inflating them like balloons_!"

The rabbit pushed herself to the opposite side of the cell with all the strength she had, as though hoping she would phase through the wall and be as far away from Rosy as she could. The pink hedgehog just found this incredibly amusing and let out a high pitched giggle before resuming her futile efforts to draw Eggman's attention.

Cream was so scared and sad. She hoped it wouldn't be long now until Mr Sonic and his friends found her. He always saved the day, she just had to have hope.

Repeating in her mind over and over ' _Mr Sonic will save me_ ' helped to calm her down. Slowly she let herself relax and she stopped pushing against the cell wall. She just had to be patient and wait. Mr Sonic would save her.

Her ear gave a twitch as she heard a sound behind her. She turned to see the other occupant of the cells finally beginning to move from the ball on the floor she had held herself in.

Fiona had worried Cream since the moment they got put into these horrible cages. She had gone completely silent and wrapped her arms around her legs as she lay in a ball on the floor, saying nothing, doing nothing. Cream knew this whole situation was scary, but despite her young age, the bunny girl was getting the impression that something about this situation was affecting Miss Fiona much deeper then it was her or Rosy.

The vixen slowly uncurled, but she still didn't speak. Quietly, she moved to the back wall of her cell and sat down, her head held low and her arms hugging herself tightly. Her tail curled around herself before she simply sat in silence, looking as though she didn't ever expect to see daylight again.

Seeing this, Cream couldn't help but want to try and cheer the fox up.

"Um, Miss Fiona... you... you don't have to be sad. I know it's really scary down here, b-but Mr Sonic will come save us! Maybe your friend Mr Scourge will come to help as well."

"I doubt it, but thanks for trying there kid."

The response threw Cream off balance a little, before she plucked up her courage and tried again. "Don't think like that Miss Fiona. I'm not sure what things were like with that other Sonic you knew, but my Sonic always saves the day. He'll come help us, I'm sure of it. Mr Scourge seemed to really care about you too, so I think he'll come too. You just need to keep up hope."

Fiona said nothing for a moment, before she finally raised her head so she could look the little bunny in the eyes. It surprised Cream to see them filled with so much despair. She hadn't known Fiona long, but she'd seemed lively and vibrant during their first meeting. To see her so despondent was unnerving.

Fiona said nothing for a few moments, just watching Cream in silence. The bunny started to feel uncomfortable (both from the silent stare and Rosy upping her ranting up to new and extremely disturbing levels) when the fox gave a quiet sigh and looked away.

"Kid... I hear what your saying... but I've learned the hard way not to bother with 'hope'. In the end, the only thing you can truly place faith in is yourself. I've felt the pain of betrayal from those you believe will always be there. The devastation of being let down when all you have left is hope. I refuse to let myself feel that pain again."

A frown creased her brow and she slowly turned back to Cream, who just looked saddened by her words, but still ready to keep trying to cheer the fox up if given the chance. The pain of memories past looped through Fiona's mind, a weight she had never been able to shake away. Memories that had shaped who she became, helped her to see the truth of the world, to never let herself foolishly put her faith in others.

Seeing Cream was about to try and speak up once more, Fiona continued, once more turning away.

I can tell you've been in Eggman's hold before, but what you've been through is truly nothing compared to the horrors of my past. This Eggman seems just as smart, but his reach isn't anywhere near as strong as mine's was. The Eggman from my world had over ninety percent of the planet under his control. Those that weren't fortunate enough to find shelter in Knothole or later New Mobotropolis, they suffered daily. Slave camps dedicated to mining resources for machines were everywhere. The horrors that went on in them... the nightmares you'd have if you saw them would scar you for life."

Cream was silent for a moment before a dark realization came to her, filling her with understanding and pity.

"You were in one of the camps weren't you."

Fiona just glared at nothing for a moment, her fists tightening as images flashed through her head. Beatings, whips, chains... they filled her with rage... and with fear.

"Yeah Kid... I was in one."

Her teeth were clenched and her eyes closed as the horrible images continued flashing through her. A nightmare that was always with her, always hiding in the dark recesses of her mind.

"That camp, was the worst thing I have ever gone through in my life. I was just a little girl, probably no older then you when I was taken from my family and forced to work in one of Robotnik's mines. Robots watched over us, never needing to sleep, or rest, or ever leave. They just kept us working, until we were so exhausted we physically couldn't move, and then we'd have to do it all again the next day. We'd dig into the earth with pick axes and shovels, mining ores and coals for his monstrous machines. If we ever slowed or resisted, they'd make sure we knew it was a mistake. Whips cut our flesh. Metal fists broke our bones. Chains broke us down until we were nothing more then empty shells, no better then that monster's slave keeping robots."

She could feel the scars buried underneath her fur. The marks of the Doctor's cruelty hidden in plain sight, but always remembered in her mind. Always felt. Always feared.

I spent over ten years in that hell hole. I never had a true child hood, just the life of a slave under a tyrant's thumb. But I refused to let him break me. Despite the pain, and the cruelty, I fought back. I became an icon to the other prisoners, someone they could look to and feel hope in their suffering. In the end, that same role would ultimately show me the truth."

Fiona pulled herself from her position against the wall and began pacing about, the anger and the despair and the memories of the pain overwhelming her. She could remember the looks all those slaves gave her. Looking up to her and to Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squrriel as the three of them banded together, became a source strength they could all turn, something that could keep them holding on despite all the mad Doctor had done to break them. But as she remembered their hopeful faces, pain filled her, as the coming betrayal drew near, destroyed any joy she could take from the role, turning even the brief moments of happiness in her memories bitter.

"Robotnik soon decided to make an example of me, to show the others that resistance would not be tolerated. That his rule was absolute, that nothing that apposed him would ever win." she actually trembled a little as she remembered him standing over her, that sadistic grin on his face as his soulless robots pulled her away from Mighty and Ray. The way she'd tried to hold strong until it became too much and she screamed for her friends to help her. How they had been held back and could do nothing to help her.

"I was dragged away into a solitary cell. No light, no windows, just nothing but darkness. I was left in there for a week with no food or water, slowly beginning to starve." she remembered her voice going hoarse from her screams in the blackness, only to be ignored and forgotten. The intense pain as her stomach began cannibalizing itself, desperate for nourishment. But even with all that, she knew the worst was to come.

"Eventually that monster of a man came and pulled me from that cell, weak and helpless and desperate. But he didn't return me to the others, instead I was taken to a hidden part of the facility. A laboratory he conducted secret experiments in. He experimented on me there for days."

Restraints strapped to her wrists. Held tight to an operating table, helpless and weak to resist. Scans and needles and pain... so much pain...

The memories didn't stop, they just kept coming, burning through her mind. Fiona's body started to shake and she couldn't tell if it was from the rage or from the terror.

"Eventually he showed why he had put me through it all. He constructed a robot duplicate of me, with synthetic flesh and fur hiding the metal skeleton beneath. He hadn't cared at all about my resistance or acting like a beacon of hope for the others. To him it all meant nothing. So hopeless that he didn't even care if the slaves pretended to themselves that their hope would save them. All he wanted was the template of a female fox so he could use it as a spy to trick and then trap Tails so he could hurt Sonic. It wasn't even a high priority mission. Just a passing fancy, to give him something to do while he finalized his real plans. In his eyes, I was just nothing... just... nothing..."

She remembered how devastated she was, to learn all that torment, all that suffering, had been for nothing. For a passing fancy. Just to give him something to do. She had meant so little in his eyes that he hadn't even used her suffering for something important. She was nothing but a tool, a toy for him to play with until he got bored. The tears that had been in her eyes then didn't cross her eyes now. Instead, she felt rage. True blistering rage at what she knew transpired next. The last string of the ripped and ruined tapestry that had been her life.

She clenched her fists so tight her knuckles began to whiten beneath her gloves and her eyes were filled with such hate, it was like staring into two blue pools of fire.

"After that he had me locked up in another solitary cell. At least this one had a window and a dirt floor instead of the metal plating I'd been subjected to for weeks. That cell became my home for the next two years. The only interaction I had with anyone was with an automated robot that brought me one meal a day. All I could do was sit there, hoping, praying that someone would come for me. That someone would save me from this horrible fate."

Days turning into weeks. Weeks turning into months. Months turning into years. Everyday the same. Just the same metal walls, the same dirt floor, the view of a barren field filled with nothing from her barred window. The overwhelming loneliness and the crippling depression. The only thing keeping her from just killing herself was that desperate hope that she would be saved. That Mighty and Ray would come for her, or even Sonic the hedgehog and his Freedom Fighters, that myth of heroes that had spread through the camp like wildfire. Looking up at the stars every night, praying to whatever gods there were that she could escape this nightmarish fate, only to keep waking the next day still trapped within those cramped metal walls.

"That was, until the rescue."

At the word 'rescue' Cream started to let a little joy come back to her face, but the feeling was crushed as she saw the burning hatred on Fiona's face. The fox had to stop for a moment to get her breath back she was panting so hard, her rage so intense it was like a living volcano.

"One day, the camp was located by the Freedom Fighters and Sonic, on one of his first missions, led the charge to free all the slaves held within."

Cream watched as Fiona stared at her dead on, making sure the little bunny heard her next words. Quivering with fury the fox spat out, with a venom so vile the air seemed to burn.

" _All except me_!"

Cream gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, not able to truly process what she had just heard. Mr Sonic _didn't_ save someone. How could that be. He was a hero, he saved the world from that mean Doctor all the time, and all sort of other threats. He was always there when people needed him.

But Cream could see the hatred in Fiona, the unforgiving fury towards Sonic for his perceived betrayal. But the bunny could see deeper, passed all the overwhelming anger to the deeper feelings. The feelings of despair, the feeling of having been let down by someone so trusted. The pain of being forgotten and abandoned, especially when all the others had had their faith rewarded.

This act had imprinted itself so deeply within Fiona, that it had shaped how she saw the world. In her world there was no hero now. No one to save the day. Just a skilled fighter leaving her to rot away forever.

As Cream observed the fox, Fiona continued her tale, too consumed in her grief and rage to see how the young bunny was analyzing her.

"There were people in that camp who knew I was there! So many of them knew me! I had been there for them all, watching out for them, doing everything I could to protect them! Yet when the brave hero of Mobius came for them all, only I was left behind! I screamed and cried and did everything to get their attention, but that arrogant blue fool didn't hear any of it! And then, after everyone was freed he left! Didn't bother doing any checking of the facility! Didn't think to even look if others might have been there! He just ran off into the sunset, that infuriating smirk on his face, congratulating himself on what a good job he'd done!"

So caught up in her tale, Fiona didn't realize her outraged cries had drawn the notice of Rosy. The hedgehog watched silently in confusion from her cell, while Cream struggled not to start crying, hearing the despair covered by all of Fiona's hatred.

"I lied to myself for days after that. _'Don't worry Fiona, they'll come back for you. It was just a mistake, they'll come save you soon.'_ But after two more weeks of being stuck in that cell, with that damn robot bringing me my one meal and nothing changing, I realized the truth. I had been abandoned, forgotten. Everything I had done for those people, forgotten about in an instant. I wasn't even an afterthought to them. And Sonic, that bastard was riding so high on his perceived greatness that he didn't even bother to see if there was anyone else trapped in the facility. I knew then that faith and hope were nothing but lies. Lies designed to keep us from giving into despair, only to cause us even more when reality arrives to crush us beneath its boot."

The fox went silent for a moment after that. The tension in her body relaxed and she stopped her pacing, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths. After a few moments of calming down, the fox turned back to Cream, a slight bit of surprise in her eye when she spotted Rosy silently listening as well. However Fiona continued on anyway, letting the painful memories sink back away into her mind. Not forgotten, but no longer overwhelming.

"After that I took my fate into my own hands. I spent days after that digging through the dirt with my bare hands, tunneling away until finally I broke free and escaped. I headed back to my old home, only to find it abandoned and my family long gone. They had left me behind just like everyone else. So I set off to make my way in the world and find a place for myself, but I carried that hard taught lesson with me always."

Slowly the fox walked forwards, kneeling before Cream, who watched her silently, her face conflicted and scared. Gently Fiona patted the young bunny's arms through the cell in a comforting manner, her expression easing slightly.

"I appreciate you trying to cheer me up kid, but at the end of the day, I have no false hopes in my mind. Sonic, Scourge, they aren't gonna risk their necks for us. In this world, the only person you can count on is yourself. Besides, I know Scourge well. I know he cares about me, at least more then he's cared about any of his previous girlfriends. But when it comes down to it, the one person he cares about more then any other is himself. I know he cares about me, but he won't do anything that puts himself at risk. He might try something against Eggman the next time he sees him, but he won't come here."

Fiona gently continued to pat Cream, hoping her movements felt soothing despite the hopelessness of words. Behind her she could see Rosy remained quiet, processing everything Fiona had said and coming to whatever conclusions could be achieved in that crazy broken mind of hers.

"So, that's what happened to keep you so quiet down here. My respect for my counterpart continues to grow with everything I learn about him."

Fiona turned sharply, a glare immediately coming to her muzzle as the pompous Doctor Eggman strode towards them out of the shadows, a malicious smirk on his face. Behind him, some sort of machine was pushed forwards. It was far too dark to make it out properly, but it looked like some sort of laser.

"I hope you have all had fun telling stories and getting to know one another, but unfortunately it is time to get down to business."

Rosy let out a giggle at this before her manic smile reappeared, her eyes filled with sadistic glee. "Ooh its been really great. Hearing all the neato stuff the Doctor did to Fiona. He sounds extra fun. _Nothing compared to me_ _though_!"

Eggman paused for a moment, observing the crazy hedgehog, a slight nervousness coming to his face, before he dismissed it and strolled forwards looking as confident as ever.

"Yes well, moving on. I have been having a very enjoyable time sorting through Shard's memories. That machine has seen quite a few extraordinary things in his time, and has schematics and designs for several of my Counterpart's weapons and devices. In fact two of them in particular caught my interest. One of them I'll have to look into in the near future, but for now, allow me to show you my version of the previous Doctor's greatest invention."

With an exaggerated flourish he stepped aside, allowing the laser like machine to be brought closer to the cells. Rosy and Cream had no idea what it was, but something in the back of Fiona's mind told her this device was extremely dangerous. She couldn't remember ever having seen it before, but something about it seemed familiar. Like she'd been told about it or given a description at some point in the past but couldn't truly picture it.

"What's it do, what's it do!? Does it blow bubbles!? Does it shoot confetti!? _Does it melt the flesh from your target's bones and leave them screaming in agony until they've been consumed in all encompassing waves of fire and death_!? Ooh ooh, does it shoot out sparklers !?"

Everyone just stared at Rosy in silence as the hedgehog started bouncing up and down in excitement. Finally Eggman just gave an irritated sigh.

"You know what. I was going to test this thing out on Cream here (the bunny gave a startled yelp at this) but now, screw it, I pick you."

"Yay! what am I picked for? Will it be fun? _Will I get to tear out Scourge's spine and beat him to death with it_!"

Eggman just stared at her in annoyance before turning to his laser and aiming it at her while Cream cowered down and Fiona mentally fought over whether she should actually give a damn about what was about to happen to this crazy girl.

"Fiona and Cream my dears, prepare yourselves, because soon this will be your fate as well."

With that Eggman pulled a remote from his pocket and hit a switch. The laser flared to life and with a bright flash, Rosy was completely consumed. Her giggling and excitement rapidly changed into a scream of fear and pain, before there was a disturbing silence.

Fiona and Cream shielded their eyes from the blast. But as it died down, the sight before them was beyond horrifying.

The fox went silent, her eyes wide as she realized exactly what Eggman had done, an intense fear welling up within her. Cream however had only one reaction.

She screamed.

* * *

Scourge glared before charging into another spin as a rhinotank attempted to run him flat.

The group had made good time and with Nicole's tracker, they had come across Eggman's base. It wasn't as large as some of his usual bases, but Sonic suspected it likely had several layers beneath the ground to compensate. The whole thing had Eggman's signature flare to it. Large chemical barrels rose up high, alongside smoke stacks, belching poisonous fumes into the air. Metal plating on every surface, with all greenery ripped away, destroying the natural beauty of the world in his mechanical tyranny. Dozens of egg fighters, aero canons and other badniks models littered the place, all set and prepared for the group's arrival, just waiting to gun them down for their master. Above it all, the metal grinning duplicate of his face and mustache, the signature detail of any Eggman facility.

For all its defenses though, it hadn't taken long at all to fight their way to the entry point.

The rhinotank was obliterated in a shower of sparks as the green hedgehog slashed straight through it, it's large bulk doing absolutely nothing to the enraged Moebian. As the jacket clad hedgehog unfurled, an aero cannon took aim at him, only for a damaged and sparking egg fighter to collide with it in a large explosion. Scourge just glanced behind him to see Amy, her hammer unwound from her attack, looking quite pleased with herself.

"Thanks for the save Pinky, though believe me, I had it well handled." he said offhandedly, turning his focus back on the remaining security defenses.

Amy rolled her eyes and scoffed, but her response was cut off as another egg fighter bulldozed into her with a massive haymaker. Scourge let out a snide laugh before zooming forward in a green blur, slashing through several motobugs in the process.

Amy came to a rolling stop, groaning before giving a yelp as the egg fighter pressed the attack and tried to crush her skull. A buzzing blue disc suddenly dashed forward and slashed through the machine, splitting it in two. Amy smiled as the saw unfolded into the frowning form of Sonic. The blue hedgehog watched in irritation as his dimensional counterpart continued smashing away at Eggman's robots, completely ignoring that he'd just let an egg fighter tackle Amy. She could have been killed!

He turned to the pink hedgehog and stretched out a hand to help her to her feet. "Man that guy is a real jerk. He just stood there and laughed, right after you saved his butt. I swear as soon as we've saved Cream and the others I am going to smack him upside the head."

Using his hand, Amy pulled herself up, dusting off her dress a little and pulling out a new hammer from the ether, a determined expression on her face.

"Don't worry about him Sonic. He'll get what's coming to him soon enough. For now, let's focus on clearing out these badniks and saving our friends."

Sonic's eyes widened, before his iconic smirk returned to his face. "Now you're talking Amy. Lets get to it!"

The two gave a determined nod then zoomed off in different directions, Sonic becoming a blue of blue while Amy began swinging her hammer back and forth, smashing anything that came her way.

Tail's meanwhile was swooping through the air, Nicole's pad held tight in his hands as he ducked and weaved through the aerial combatants, flying about so erratically that their weapons were doing more damage to each other then doing anything resembling damage to him. Below him, Knuckles leapt high, then zoomed at the ground, fists outstretched. He hit the ground, sending out a tremor, tripping up several egg fighters that were then mercilessly sliced to ribbons in combined flashes of green and blue.

However just as the last badniks were being taken down, a large screen was deployed from the facilities roof, a static signal flashing before Eggman's face loomed over them, leering down at them menacingly.

"Well well, you lot certainly didn't take long. Then again, I should have come to expect that. You rodents are a tenacious lot after all."

Scourge glared up at the mustached villain, his eyes full of fury and his fist raised threateningly. "Alright asshole enough games! Give Fiona back or when I find you I'm gonna rip that greasy facial hair off your face and choke you to death with it!"

Eggman actually pulled back at this for a moment. Sonic had insulted him plenty of times in the past, but they all tended to be childish and filled with smug confidence. He wasn't used to receiving death threats. Perhaps all the inhabitants of Moebius were simply more violent in nature. He'd need to be careful with this one. One Sonic was bad enough. A Sonic that might actually do more then just try to stop his plans was certainly not someone to take lightly.

Still, he was hardly going to just take something like that lying down. What sort of evil genius would he be if he just let these furry freaks walk all over him.

"Hmm, it seems your still very wound up from earlier. Perhaps seeing an old friend will calm you down a little. After all, I know he's positively _dying_ to see all of you again."

Letting out a dark chuckle, the view screen deactivated and pulled itself back. However before Scourge could smash down the facility doors and make good on his threat, a loud grinding noise echoed through the air.

A large section of the metal platform they all stood on opened up and a lift overflowing with badniks rose up. Large mechs designed to crush them easily. Egg fighters wielding chainsaw blades, or handheld energy shields designed to repel spin dash attacks. Dozens of security drones took to the air, lasers and machine guns at the ready. Turrets activated from the facility walls, all trained on the group of fighters, just ready to blast them.

But it was the figure at the head that drew all notice. Nicole's avatar flared to life, her face filled with terror at the sight before them.

Black and yellow steel, glistening in the skies dying light. Digitally displayed optics, flared red, with combatant sensors deployed and ready to engage. A metal fist clenched and ready to punch, while the other was converted into an energy canon, aimed straight for them. A crystal, no longer cracked or damaged, but filled with menacing red light.

The AI lynx could only stare back speechless as her greatest friend stood before them on Eggman's side.

With no words being said, Shard the Metal Sonic fired his canon.


End file.
